At the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Visitor Center in Seattle, an exhibit pairs the reasons the foundation chooses not to fund alternative energy research with the reasons it funds crop biotechnology. A screen displays Bill Gates talking to the camera about how, together with improved farming techniques, genetically modified seeds can help small farmers and their families live better lives. Next to him, red text reads, “Sometimes people disagree with our approach,” acknowledging the controversy around genetically modified organisms. Now Bill Gates is taking that bold argument to the blogosphere.
“It’s quite common to see these farmers double or triple their harvests and their incomes when they have access to the advances farmers in the rich world take for granted,” Gates writes in a post published Tuesday on his GatesNotes blog about the impact of climate change on small farmers. “This new prosperity allows them to improve their diets, invest in their farms, and send their children to school. It also pulls their lives back from the razor’s edge, giving them a sense of security even if they have a bad harvest.”
In his post, titled “Who will suffer most from climate change? Hint: Not you,” Gates expands on the connection between agriculture and nutrition — two Gates Foundation programs that are increasingly working together. With the adoption of the sustainable development goals on the horizon, Gates is sure to be more vocal, despite the controversy, on climate change adaptation through biofortification. By investing in GMOs to help poor farmers adapt to the harsh realities of climate change, the foundation hopes to set examples for how the Green Climate Fund, which was set up as part of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change to help countries adapt to climate change, might spend its $10 billion.