Bill Gates Comes to Town

On Friday, Bill Gates will visit Edinburgh University and will talk about world farming. He will announce further investment in UK agricultural innovation and unveil a plaque to formally launch the University’s Global Academy of Agriculture and Food Security, a £35 million research and teaching initiative focused on safeguarding the future of the world’s food supplies.

Professor Sir Timothy O’Shea, Edinburgh University principal, said: “Feeding the world’s growing population well while protecting the natural systems on which we all depend is one of the greatest challenges facing humanity."

It is a shame that Bill won't manage to drop in on any of our Edinburgh branch members who would be more than willing to point out to him that the world currently produces a surplus of food yet nearly a billion go without sufficient nutritious food.

Only within a socialist framework can a rational food policy be put into place. Much of our case is promoting the possibility and the feasibility of a sustainable future society. We suggest and accept that there must be changes in energy policy, to waste and pollution management, but most of all in our food production system. The Socialist Party case is that these necessary changes cannot and will not be permitted by capitalism. The social cost of what you eat and the environmental and health consequence of what you eat is determined by the profit system and by those who own the means of production and distribution.