PRESS ADVISORY: Simultaneous Demonstrations in Seattle and London Oppose Gates Foundation’s Secret Meeting about Seed Privatization in Africa

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 20, 2015

Contact: 
Heather Day, Executive Director, Community Alliance for Global Justice, [email protected]

 

Simultaneous Demonstrations in Seattle and London Oppose Gates Foundation’s Secret Meeting about Seed Privatization in Africa

SEATTLE, WA — On Monday, March 23, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) are sponsoring a secret meeting in London to promote a recent report they commissioned detailing in clear terms how to privatize the seed and agricultural markets of Africa- without African stakeholders having a seat at the table. A coalition of grassroots community organizations across the US, UK, and Africa are criticizing the gathering for:

  • Inviting corporations, development bodies, trade bodies and aid donors, yet not inviting any representatives of impacted organizations;
  • Promoting the privatization of African seed production and distribution through top-down changes to African states’ national regulations;
  • Building a nontransparent network of corporate, philanthropic and state-based actors aiming to expropriate African land, seeds and agriculture.

The UK activists plan to hold a demonstration outside of the meeting in a message of solidarity with African groups who are resisting what they are calling a new form of colonialism. Community Alliance for Global Justice will be holding a solidarity demonstration, simultaneously with the London action, outside the Gates Foundation headquarters in Seattle, WA.

What: Simultaneous pickets in Seattle and London protesting meeting about seed privatization in Africa
Where: In front of the Gates Foundation; 440 Fifth Avenue North, Seattle 98109
When: Monday, March 23, 2015; 8:30am-10am
Who: Protestors on both sides of the Atlantic

Visuals: Signs, Banners, Seed Packets. Protestors will hand out packets of open-pollinated seeds to demonstrate the alternatives that African farmers have to offer.

AGRA Watch is a grassroots, Seattle-based program of Community Alliance for Global Justice, challenging the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations’ questionable agricultural programs in Africa, including its Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).

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Posted in Agra Watch Blog Posts, Agra Watch News.

2 Comments

  1. Hi Heather Day and all allies for Africa,fighting for us and for organizing the demonstration against Secret Meeting about Seed Privatization in Africa organized On Monday, March 23, sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in a secret meeting in London to promote a recent report they commissioned detailing in clear terms how to privatize the seed and agricultural markets of Africa- without African stakeholders having a seat at the table,am adding my voice with you to criticize the gathering.

    Best regards,

    Kaganga John

    Director Kikandwa Environmental Association

    Retired teacher, Small scale Farmer, Professional Food Security Fellow, Environment and Food Sovereignty Activist,

    C/o Uganda Coalition for Sustainable Development

    P.O. Box 27551 Kampala

    Phone +256 772 49 46 97 /+256 772 67 46 47
    Email; [email protected] /[email protected]

  2. These people are evil-conspiring to poison food all for the sake of profit. This has to be stopped somehow. This secret meeting shows how little these people care for the health of others.

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