Bill Gates Foundation Investing In Monsanto?
from the that's-not-innovation dept
This is unfortunate. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has certainly been hard at work trying to improve healthcare around the world, but the latest news is that the Foundation has decided to invest in Monsanto, a company famous for widely abusing intellectual property laws to make people a lot less healthy, to increase the cost of some key foods important to feeding the hungry and to generally scare researchers from sharing important information with one another, for fear that it will be patented and locked up. If the Foundation really believes in making people around the globe healthier, it wouldn't be investing in Monsanto, but working hard to break down the barriers that Monsanto has put up to making people around the world healthy.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: bill gates, healthcare, patents, seeds
Companies: bill and melinda gates foundation, monsanto
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Huh
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Don't be all doom and gloom before you know all the facts.
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Re:
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That reminds me of the story of the preacher caught in bed with the prostitute. He said it was just his way of reaching prostitutes to preach to them on the evils of prostitution.
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Maybe a change is at hand
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Re: Maybe a change is at hand
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Re: Re: Maybe a change is at hand
Saying that he couldn't change the company because he only owns a fraction of it is like saying that your favorite or most hated news talk show host can't influence an election because he only has 1 vote on election day.
If Warren Buffet owned a signle share of a company, I'd pay more attention to what he said than a mindless board member who owned 10% of it.
All that being said, I'm reserving judgement on this until I see what happens.
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watch that money fly
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really?
The man has done plenty of shady investing with their foundation. dig a little deeper.
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Re:
It's got nothing to do with coming up with successful new products. We're all for that and support it whenever possible.
What we have a *SERIOUS* problem with is the way Monsanto grossly abused patent laws to effectively lock farmers into using its higher cost seeds, blocked them from (as they've done since farming began) collecting their own seeds and replanting them, and even going after farmers who had Monsanto seeds blow onto their property.
I have nothing against successful products. I have tremendous problems with a company abusing patents in such a manner.
You don't?
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There's absolutely nothing "new" about Monsanto being criticized. I mean, several decades worth of criticisms over business practices, controversies over government bribery, and charges of pollution and false advertising certainly aren't anything to scoff at.
Oh, but they made a product that "increases crop yields", so they must be good.
...Man, that's such a spin phrase...doesn't even say that food production has increased or is cheaper. It's like, "don't hate on us, we did something cool".
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Research it and you'll see that MOnsanto is evil.
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More on Monsanto's abuse of patents:
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/05/monsanto200805
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Not this crap again
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Ha! Don't make me laugh!
Oh...wait...what was the Canadian Government's policy on "Intellectual Property" developed with taxpayer dollars? Here's a refresher:
http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/rma/dpr/00-01/IC00dpr/IC0001dpr07_e.asp
(See the third section titled: Accelerated commercialization and adoption of innovative processes and products by Canadian organizations)
Because, you know, Bill Gates would never be a greedy monopolist out to use "IP Laws" to hijack everyone's wealth, right? Foundation my a$$! He's just dumped software because he's smelled where the REAL money's at!!
Then there's the malthusian agenda (see the youtube video). Why is it that the world's largest parasites can't free up the most resources by "depopulating" themselves first?
http://www.canada.com/story_print.html?id=80127c99-1329-42d4-97a7-3664d1f45da1&spons or=
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_policy_of_the_Harper_government#AIDS
http://www.youtu be.com/watch?v=-0gvDkVcFkI
http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2010/02/19/hiv-vaccine-research-bid-win nipeg.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-holt-gimenez/monsanto-in-gates-clothin_b_696182.h tml
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Buy them out?
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Killing the poor with genetic crops?
Your saying Gates was planning on killing or stopping repoduction using vaccines and now what? He has given up on that because he thinks it can be done with genetic crops from monsanto?
Right...let's get the tinfoil hats out everyone! Ever thought that he's trying to solve the world's problems? He has enough money so thats what he does now!
Before Microsoft there was no computers and look what he did! Now there's a computer on every desk like he planned and our lives are way better than they were in the 80's!
You people who post this crap are just a bunch of technology haters/fearers!
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Re: Killing the poor with genetic crops?
Is this a new internet meme?
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Monsanto is evil
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Re: Monsanto is evil
Hmmm, I wonder what would happen if Monsanto's competitors actually created Roundup resistant genetically modified weeds. If those then got loose, it seems that it could pretty much wipe out the market for both Roundup and Monsanto's seeds.
Monsanto could also do the same to its competitors (if it hasn't already), leaving the farmers caught in the crossfire of a never-ending war between new super-weeds and the new super-herbicides needed to control them. Of course, that's an old business model: create the problem and then sell the solution.
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fish or cut bait
Josh, well said. I just wish time were on our side.
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Control
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I am very disappointed and very concerned.
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prtnership
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Bill Gates Monsanto & Blackwater = Xe !
http://2012patriot.wordpress.com/2012/02/10/bill-gates-nwo-culling/
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Bill Gates Monsanto & Blackwater = Xe !
http://2012patriot.wordpress.com/2012/02/10/bill-gates-nwo-culling/
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What does the Gates foundation do with the patents it collects?
In 2013 the Gates foundation was still making some "curious" investments: https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/12/gates-foundations-24-most-egregious-investments/
Of course they can't avoid having some Coca Cola when their money largely comes from Warren Buffett and shares of Berkshire, whose entire theory of investment is based on "moats".
On https://www.gatesfoundation.org/-/media/GFO/Who-We-Are/Financials/F_814061_18_BillMelindaGatesFounda tion_FS.ashx?la=en&hash=DC497C5BA4080637F79DCD76B89B541541DD108E to describe their investment strategy claim that «The majority of these equity investments [...] include investing in novel vaccine and therapeutic platforms, developing improved diagnostics, and strengthening agriculture and health delivery systems. The Foundation has also made equity investments in support of U.S. education.»
In other words they invest in the sectors of some of the worst profiteers, pharma, agri-business and private education?
From the most recent financial statements of the Trust https://www.gatesfoundation.org/-/media/GFO/Who-We-Are/Financials/F_814054_18_BillMelindaGatesFounda tionTrust_FS.ashx?la=en&hash=4B5B53FAF5C8452C333863FFAB94F696816ED99A they have some 12 G$ in Berkshire, plus 7 G$ in "industrials" and 5 G$ in "consumer goods" which might be anything. The MSCI World Industrials index has a market cap of less than 5 T$ https://www.msci.com/documents/10199/54b1293a-00fc-4bb9-8308-d03484f0c3db so Gates foundation may own some 0.1 % on average. Nobody seems to own as much of Bayer: https://www.morningstar.com/stocks/pinx/bayry/ownership
Yet, the Gates foundation appeares to promote so called "intellectual property" by encouraging inventors to use it "properly":
http://globalaccess.gatesfoundation.org/
They ask to receive a non-exclusive license, sublicenseable, and they don't exclude getting royalties for them. The apparent objective is to be able to grant "humanitarian licenses":
https://docs.gatesfoundation.org/Documents/Humanitarian-License-Nonbinding-FAQ.pdf
T hat can make sense: it's better if more entities have licenses and use them, unlike the NIH which funds inventions and then lets companies rip off the heathcare system: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101207/18030712173/nih-wont-let-others-supply-life-saving-drug-e ven-though-genzyme-cant-make-enough.shtml
Yet, Bill Gates appears to oppose the healthcare plan https://elizabethwarren.com/plans/paying-for-m4a which includes provisions for statutory licensing/compulsory licenses (the Medicare Negotiation and Competitive Licensing Act https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/6505/text is mentioned)
So, after the Monsanto debacle a few questions remain.
1) Is the Gates foundation still investing in/profiting from companies which profit from making people more ill?
2) Is there any evidence of the Gates foundation using one of its (licenses to) patents to expand affordable access somewhere?
3) Did the Gates foundation oppose or support EFF's initiative "Reclaim Invention" and Public Interest Patent Pledge/PIPP https://www.eff.org/reclaim-invention/pledge ?
4) Did the Gates foundation oppose or support efforts such as the compulsory licensing scheme in India, which faced oppositions and blackmailing from multinationals for decades and finally issued its first compulsory license in 2012 for a Bayer drug (Sorafenib)? https://www.ip-watch.org/2012/03/12/india-grants-first-compulsory-licence-for-bayer-cancer-drug/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_license#India
5) Did the Gates foundation ever support or oppose efforts to instate similar compulsory licensing schemes in the USA?
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