Bill Gates Touts ‘Magic Seeds’ to Fight Food Shortages, Warns ’Progress Has Stalled Amid Numerous Crises’

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates speaks at a news conference in Davos, Switzerland, on May 25, 2022. Markus Schreiber/AP Photo

Billionaire Bill Gates is pushing for the use of “magic seeds” as a way to combat food shortages, citing examples of crops that are genetically modified organisms (GMO) used in Kenya and India.

“Magic seeds” is a term Gates gave to a new type of maize that was developed by a group of African crop researchers. By breeding certain varieties of maize, researchers created a hybrid crop that was more resistant to drier, hotter climates, Gates wrote in the sixth annual Goalkeepers Report published by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on Sept. 12. The new crop, DroughtTEGO, produced an average of 66 percent more grain per acre in Kenya, he claims.

Gates cited another example to support his push for GMO crops—the Indian state of Punjab. Farmers in the state began using a short-duration rice variety requiring three fewer weeks of cultivation in the field. This also allowed farmers to plant their wheat earlier. “With one seed, Punjab was supercharging two crops,” he wrote.

The billionaire went on to call for “big funding increases” for magic seeds as a way to increase agricultural productivity and address “the current food crisis.”

The Goalkeepers Report, titled “The Future of Progress” this year, also suggests that the impact of wars in Ukraine and Yemen, COVID-19 pandemic, and climate and food crises have negatively impacted global ambitions to save and improve millions of lives by 2030.

“It’s no surprise that progress has stalled amid numerous crises,” Gates said, according to a press release on Sept. 12.

Gates and the Failed AGRA Initiative

Gates has previously promoted agricultural projects that have massively failed to generate any significant positive impact. The Alliance for the Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), for example, launched in 2006 and funded by the Gates Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation, had the stated aim of increasing investment in Africa to reduce hunger and poverty.

A report by African and German civil society groups notes that despite AGRA existing for 14 years and pumping in more than a billion dollars into Africa, there was hardly any evidence of agricultural productivity boost in nations where the organization operates.

In fact, the number of malnourished people in these countries rose by more than 31 million during this period. In Tanzania, AGRA insisted that farmers cultivate each crop in separate fields. This raised production costs and diminished crop diversity.

In Rwanda, some farmers were forced to use synthetic fertilizers in their fields. In Kenya, farmers did not have the freedom to choose the variety of maize, fertilizer, or pesticide they received, the report notes.

In addition to pushing the increased use of GMO crops, Gates also wants the world to shift to eating “synthetic beef” to combat climate change, he said to the MIT Technology Review last year. Synthetic meat is created in labs from animal stem cells.

In July, Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) sent a letter to House Agriculture Committee Chairman David Scott (D-Ga.), asking that Gates testify regarding his large farmland purchases before the committee.

Gates possesses almost 270,000 acres of farmland spread over 19 states. He is the “largest private farmland owner” in the United States.