This series of articles by Stacy Malkan examines Bill Gates and the Gates Foundation’s agricultural development program and political influence over global food systems. Why are we tracking Gates? Read our introductory post. And please sign up for our free newsletter to receive updates. You can email tips to stacy@usrtk.org.

Planning documents for the 2021 United Nations Food Systems Summit shed new light on the agenda behind the controversial food summit that hundreds of farmers’ and human rights groups are boycotting. The groups say agribusiness interests and elite foundations are dominating the process to push through an agenda that would enable the exploitation of global food systems, and especially Africa. 

The documents, including a background paper prepared for summit dialogues and a draft policy brief for the summit, bring into focus “plans for the massive industrialization of Africa’s food systems,” said Mariam Mayet, executive director of the African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB), who provided the documents to U.S. Right to Know.