Bill Gates and the uncertain future of food security

As we approach a [northern hemisphere] winter of discontent1 and global food systems go from bad to worse, there's trouble in paradise.

- Dustin Broadbery

At the root of these problems, government responses to COVID-19 have contributed to a six-fold increase2 in famine-like conditions as global supply chains collapse3, and field trials for gene-edited crops and farm animals4 begin in the UK.

Against this perfect storm, the UN's World Food Systems Summit5 convened in September, with member states joining the private sector, civil society groups and researchers, to bring about tangible, positive changes to the world's food systems, and as the story goes, drive recovery from COVID-19.

But even if we could solve our problems using the same logic that created them6, there are deeper, institutional problems7 undermining the integrity of the Summit. Specifically, its corporate capture by one man, whose vision of the future of food security places the interests of civil society and farming communities in a different universe to the corporations he is beholden to.

A household name on the world stage of disaster capitalism, there is more to Bill Gates than doomsayer general terrorizing the world's population into a permanent state of suspended animation8, and it typically involves the future of food security.

America's Fast Food Impresario

In less than a decade, Gates has become America's largest private farmland owner9, acquiring more than 269,000 acres of prime farmland in the US, including the 100 Circles Farm where fast food giant McDonald's potatoes are grown10. Gates effectively owns McDonald's fries, his commitment to public health aside.