I had intended to write about pies and a trip Downeast. However, I need to talk with you about a far more serious topic directly related to food and our climate.

You have seen on the news and through social media outlets that the Amazon forest is burning. The vast acreage of the Amazon forest has been burning for a very long time. Yet it took a tweet from a forest native to go viral in order to get people’s attention.

I wrote on this issue ten years ago when Bill Gates began investing heavily in agriculture. These investments were primarily in developing countries under the guise of growing enough food worldwide. His partnership with the government of Brazil aimed to improve farming productivity in the region. It was an unholy alliance. Small farmers were moved off their lands and relocated to cities. Investors bought and began to burn the forests.

Activists, such as myself, tried to sound the alarm. It fell on deaf ears. The Bill Gates Foundation had done a great marketing campaign. Most people thought everything the foundation was doing was necessary. People are hungry, right? We need to grow more food.

Forests and grasslands are natural carbon sinks. This is why the Amazon forest is billed as the “lung of the planet.” Yet, this forest is deliberately being destroyed, reducing the planet’s capacity to remove carbon dioxide from the air. Yet, the burning continues. Gates is now partnering to invest in genetically modified soil microbes and synthetic fertilizers to grow even more food on the burned lands. This, of course, will not solve the issue of climate change through deforestation, but it will fill the coffers of agricultural giants like Bill Gates.

The Amazon forest is burning. That’s alarming. What’s as alarming is the bigger picture.

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