By Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D.

An artificial intelligence (AI) startup founded by Google and funded by the Gates Foundation has set its sights on developing “climate-resilient crops” — but some agricultural experts warn the technology is really designed to make small farms dependent on patented, privately owned technology.

In January, the Gates Foundation awarded $4.98 million to California-based Heritable Agriculture for the “Joint AI-driven Smallholder Omics aNalytics” (JASON) project. The project’s goal is “to create climate-resilient crops for smallholder farmers in low- and middle-income countries” with the help of AI.

According to Heritable, the AI tools will identify specific genes that are best adapted to “improve crop resilience against challenging conditions such as drought and heat.”

AgTech Navigator reported that Heritable’s “AI genomics engine” will mine “ancient and modern crop genomes” to identify those best adapted to a changing climate.

On paper, the idea of improving crop genetics to benefit farming in dry climates is great, said attorney and farmer John Klar. But Klar said he was skeptical about the project’s goals, noting that most agricultural technologies, particularly those that utilize genetically modified organisms, “have been driven by profit and control.”

“We have an 80-year history of technology being used to maximize profits while destroying the land, decreasing food quality, eliminating farmer families and creating complete dependency on multinational corporations for every morsel of ultraprocessed crap,” Klar said.

Backers of AI-driven ag tech seek to create ‘utter dependence’

In a January press release, Heritable CEO Brad Zamft said the Gates Foundation grant is a sign of “strong support” for the company’s approach, which involves using AI and other technologies “for global impact.”

Zamft said the technologies are good for business — and for humanity.

“A project like JASON represents over a decade of hard work from our team members shaping and sculpting a vision of an agricultural company that serves the global community, does good for the world, and builds a scalable business, all at the same time,” Zamft said.

According to the press release, the JASON project will help farmers in low- and middle-income countries “secure their livelihoods, ensure food security, and break the cycle of poverty driven by climatic shocks.”

The statement noted that “escalating drought and heat” pose “an existential threat” to those farmers, who “possess limited resources to adapt to climatic shocks” and face the risk of cycles of “chronic food insecurity, malnutrition, and displacement.”

A TechCrunch story on Heritable, published last year, suggested the company’s technology could also “improve how crops are grown.” The story noted that “agriculture puts a massive strain on the planet and its resources, accounting for around 25% of anthropogenic greenhouse emissions.”

Klar called this an example of the “climate fearporn narrative.” He said:

“Industrial agriculture pollutes more than smallholdings, turning assets like manure into deadly lagoons. Yet at root, agriculture rebuilds soils and cow manure sequesters carbon dioxide and feeds microbes that break down methane and industrial toxins.

“The climate cult wants to replace cow manure with synthetic fertilizers — made from methane — that deplete soils, cost a lot and create utter dependence. They already control most of Western agriculture this way — they seek ways to enslave the world.”

Klar also questioned the need for Western scientists and startups to instruct African farmers on how to grow their crops.

“The Kissinger playbook is to feign concern for third-world populations to then use them as guinea pigs and beguile the world,” Klar said.

Zamft told TechCrunch last year that “genetic modification is not on our roadmap” but that “gene editing may eventually come.” He suggested that gene editing will someday contribute toward making plants “programmable.”

Jim Gale, an environmental steward, founder of the environmental engineering firm Food Forest Abundance and expert on regenerative farming and permaculture, said the use of synthetic technologies to improve crop yields and resilience is a bad idea.

“The idea that evolution screwed up and that we can synthesize chemicals that are patented and for-profit, and that these synthetics will do a better job than nature can do, that’s also profoundly ignorant,” Gale said.

Food tech ‘easily dressed up as philanthropic when driven by profit motives’

Nearly a year before receiving funding from the Gates Foundation, Heritable was spun off from Google X — Google’s “moonshot factory,” or startup incubator. According to Heritable’s website, the company remains a “proud partner” of Google Cloud.

Zamft — who has been working on the Heritable project since 2018, the year he joined Google X — previously served as a program officer and fellow at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, TechCrunch reported. He also previously managed grant programs for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Klar said that behind the philanthropic messages of entities like Heritable, Google and the Gates Foundation is a profit motive.

“Food is highly profitable. It is also a core foundation of all human needs, and is easily dressed up as philanthropic when driven by profit motives,” Klar said.

Klar suggested that Heritable and the Gates Foundation may be seeking to get farmers in low- and middle-income countries dependent on their technologies, which would be sold to them for profit.

“Whether for profit or dependency, once genetics become proprietary (patented), they can be abused,” Klar said. Notably, Heritable currently holds three patents, all issued within the last 13 months. The patents cover technologies that use AI to predict plant traits and recommend genetic edits.

That type of profit motive allows people like Bill Gates to get involved in agriculture — despite lacking any background in it, Klar suggested.

“I’m not sure Gates has any agricultural track record, compared to making fake meats and other scams to create cheap food and eliminate cows and other animals — again, profit, dependency and globalization,” Klar said.

Gale said there’s a better solution for farmers in Africa and other low- and middle-income regions.

“When we achieve mass adoption of stewardship and service to our land and each other, then and only then do we earn the abundance that this world will so freely give,” Klar said.

Gates Foundation facing obstacles amid scrutiny over Epstein ties

Last year, the Gates Foundation announced it would “double spending” until 2045 — amounting to a total of $200 billion — giving away its cash reserves “to accelerate progress on saving and improving lives.”

Yet, the Gates Foundation’s involvement with Heritable comes during an increasingly challenging period for the organization.

Revelations from the “Epstein Files” that came to light in February showed that Gates maintained close ties with disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The documents showed that Gates and Epstein worked together to finance and develop a global “pandemic preparedness” network, including ways to get Gates “more money for vaccines.”

Gates and Epstein also financed efforts to help influence and control scientific discourse.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Wednesday that the Gates Foundation plans to reduce its workforce by around 20% and will launch an “outside review” of Gates’ ties to Epstein.

In a February interview, Gates told the WSJ that he was “quite stupid” for spending time with Epstein.

Related articles in The Defender

• Epstein Pitched JPMorgan Chase on Plan to Get Bill Gates ‘More Money for Vaccines’
• ‘Muzzled and Muted’: Epstein, Gates Financed Research Portal to Control Scientific Discourse
• Gates Pledges $1.6 Billion for More Vaccines for Poor Countries, as RFK Jr. Stands by U.S. Decision to Cut Funding
• All Things Bugs: Bill Gates, U.S. Military Among Investors in GMO Insect Protein for Humans
• Bill Gates Invests Millions in ‘Climate Vaccines’ to Reduce Methane Emissions From Cows
• Bill Gates, GMO Potatoes and McDonald’s French Fries — What’s the Story?
• Vandana Shiva: Bill Gates and Silicon Valley Behind Push for ‘Farming Without Farmers, Food Without Farms’

The post Gates Bets $5M on AI Crops for Poor Farmers — Critics Say It’s All About Profit and Control appeared first on Children’s Health Defense.

 

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