President Obama wishes to introduce the Rockefeller and Gates supported Green Revolution to Africa. He appointed Michael R. Taylor, VP for Public Policy at Monsanto from 1998 to 2001, as Senior Advisor to the Commissioner of the FDA. Taylor, with Rockefeller Foundation funding, authored two papers which tied US agricultural aid to Africa to the implementation of biotechnology, including pesticides and GM seeds.
The "Green Revolution" has led to financial ruin, suicide and cancer for many farmers and farm communities in India, Asia and Latin America. Please see http://www.foodfirst.org/en/no...
The Green Revolution has brought about many crop failures in Africa. This includes millions of dollars of lost income suffered by South African farmers when 82,000 hectares of genetically-manipulated corn (maize) failed to produce hardly any seeds. Monsanto offered compensation to those farmers who purchased seeds however, no compensation was offered to farmers who were given seeds (Please see http://www.foodfirst.org/en/no... )
In the 1990s, USAID, together with Monsanto, helped spearhead a 14-year, $6 million project through the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) to develop a genetically modified, virus-resistant sweet potato. The project has proven to be a failure. Local varieties outperformed GM varieties in field trials. Researchers in Uganda developed a virus-resistant hybrid through conventional breeding techniques at a tiny fraction of the cost.
