CAGJ Media Round-up March 23, 2015 Seattle and London Actions Protesting Seed Privatisation Meeting in London

On March 23, 2015 the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) sponsored 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. CAGJ/AGRA Watch and Global Justice Now coordinated simultaneous actions in Seattle and London.

Photos:

• See Community Alliance for Global Justice/AGRA Watch photos of Seattle Action here.
• See Global Justice Now photos of London Action here.

Press Releases

• African Centre for Biosafety Press Release; March 9: White men meet in London to plot ways of profiting off Africas seed systems
• CAGJ Press Advisory; March 20: Simultaneous Demonstrations in Seattle and London Oppose Gates Foundation’s Secret Meeting about Seed Privatization in Africa
• CAGJ Press Release; March 2 3: Gates Foundation Plots Ways of Profiting from Africa’s Seed Systems:?Simultaneous Demonstrations in London and Seattle

Coverage

Coverage of Seattle protest

• KIRO TV (video): Demonstrators picket Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
• KOMO Radio covered it all day, can’t find link [John Fawcett-Long reported: At about 6:05pm, KOMO radio did a two minute spot on the protest and even did a promo for the piece mentioning seeds and discontent at the Gates Foundation this morning, about 3-4 minutes before the segment ran.? The piece was very good and included both Heather Day and Matt Canfield.]
• Humanosphere Blog: Activists protest Gates Foundation plan for African farmers

Coverage of London protest

• Inter Press Service: Gates Foundation Slammed for Plan to Privatise African Seed Markets

Coverage of both protests

• Common Dreams (Featured): Gates Foundation’s Seed Agenda in Africa ‘Another Form of Colonialism,’ Warns Protesters
• CounterPunch: Rich Men in London Still Deciding Africa’s Future

Coverage of Issue

• The Ecologist (authored by African Centre for Biosafety): Grabbing Africa’s seeds: USAID, EU and Gates Foundation back agribusiness seed takeover
• Global Justice Now Blog: The fight for seed freedom
• Open Democracy: Secretive and seedy: how aid donors are opening the agribusiness flood gates

Twitter

• Twitter Action: #freetheseeds
• Global Justice Now: Twitter campaign

Heather Day, Director

Community Alliance for Global Justice
206-724-2243 (c)