CGIAR, the Rockefellers and the ‘Green Revolution’

Bill Gates was a major funder of  the well-connected, food-oriented Think Tank, CGIAR, which he highlighted in his 2021 climate change book “How To Avoid a Climate Disaster”. He advertised his book on the CGIAR website in 2021 in an article on climate change (“Bill Gates on CGIAR and Adapting to a Warmer World”, Feb 12th 2021). 

CGIAR (Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research) was a global partnership that united influential international organizations engaged in research about food security. CGIAR research – so they said – aimed to reduce rural poverty; increase food security; improve human health and nutrition, and improve the sustainable management of natural resources.

CGIAR’s biggest funders (as reported by them in 2021) included the US Government’s USAID (Ranked No.1); Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (Ranked No. 2); the UK Government’s UKAID; the World Bank Group; the European Commission.

CGIAR’s origins lay in post-war Mexico, which was an agricultural testing ground for the US Government and the Rockefeller family (especially NELSON ROCKEFELLER) and their Rockefeller Foundation, and which laid the foundations for a techno-scientific conversion of agriculture now known as the GREEN REVOLUTION (or ‘the Third Agricultural Revolution’). Naturally, the emphasis was on genetically engineered crops.

Also involved in this ‘Green Revolution’ were the UN and its’ FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANISATION (FAO); USAID, the Ford Foundation. 

In 1970, the Rockefeller Foundation proposed a worldwide network of agricultural research centers under a permanent secretariat. This was further supported and developed by the World Bank, FAO and UNDP. Consequently, CGIAR was established in 1971, to coordinate international agricultural research efforts aimed at reducing poverty and achieving food security in developing countries.

Africa was targeted for the Green Revolution, a continent that the Rockefeller Foundation has been involved in since its’ beginning. In 2006, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced a new partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation to dramatically increase productivity of small farms in sub-Saharan Africa. The partnership, called AGRA (Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa), made an initial $150 million investment to improve seed technology to produce higher yields in the region’s harsh and highly varied conditions. The Gates Foundation contributed $100 million and the Rockefeller Foundation $50 million.

During the 2020 global Covid pandemic, CGIAR set up its “COVID-19 Hub”, which was co-implemented by organsations such as the LSHTM (London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine). “The CGIAR COVID-19 Hub provides a coordinated research response to the global pandemic threatening health systems worldwide, along with posing serious risks to food security; local businesses and national economies; and hard-fought progress by stakeholders at all levels towards the Sustainable Development Goals.” (see CGIAR website).

An ex-Rockefeller Foundation President, SIR GORDON CONWAY (KCMG, FRS), was recruited by CGIAR in 1994-95 to chair an external research group; the result was the ‘Conway Report’, aka “A Vision for CGIAR: Sustainable Agriculture for a Food Secure World”. 

Conway’s career is full of familiar names, e.g. Bill Gates, the Ford Foundation, World Bank, USAID, Imperial College (London). At Imperial College, Conway led the Gates Foundation-supported advocacy group AGRICULTURE FOR IMPACT, which focused on European support of agricultural development in Africa, and which was superseded by the Malabo Montpellier Panel, of which the latter’s partners included the CGIAR’s research centre IFPRI, and also UKAID.

Conway directed the Sustainable Agriculture Programme at the IIED (International Institute for Environment and Development). Previously, the IIED had helped shape the agenda for the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment (also known as the ‘Stockholm Conference’), which led to the creation of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). 

Conway served at the UK Government’s overseas aid division (Department for International Development) as it’ Chief Scientific Adviser. He was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sussex and Chairman of a top rated think tank affiliated with that university: the IDS (Institute of Development Studies). Guess who have been amongst the top funders of the IDS? The Rockefeller Foundation; The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; The European Union; the UK Department for International Development. At the IDS in 2021 was the “Rockefeller Shan Project”, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation.

Conway was President of the Royal Geographical Society.

Bill Gates claimed that he wanted to end world hunger by growing more genetically modified (GM) crops. Consequently, he invested heavily in the notorious and controversial GM crop producer MONSANTO.

Food producers can play a role in managing climate change, according to the like of Bill Gates, who in 2018 participated in an international effort to help the world adapt to climate change, allegedly. Gates and two others led the GLOBAL COMMISSION ON ADAPTATION, which was co-managed by the WRI (World Resources Institute) and the GLOBAL CENTER ON ADAPTATION, of which the latter was co-chaired by the ex-UN Secretary-General BAN KI-MOON. Partners of the Global Center on Adaptation included CGIAR, World Bank, IMF, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the OECD.

The other 2 of the trio – who with Bill Gates fronted the aforementioned Global Commission on Adaptation – were Ban Ki-Moon and the World Bank CEO, KRISTALINA GEORGIEVA, who later became the IMF Managing Director. Georgieva previously served as Vice-President of the EUROPEAN COMMISSION under Jean-Claude Juncker. Amongst the Commissioners guiding the above trio was CHRISTIANA FIGUERES, the former Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change; WRI Board Director.

Ban Ki-Moon said “Without urgent adaptation and action, we risk undermining food, energy, and water security for decades to come…Adaptation action is not only the right action to do, it is the smart thing. The costs of adapting are less than the cost of doing business as usual.”