Meanwhile, a report published in February by Friends of the Earth International highlights that biotechnology companies, with the help of the US government, are looking for “new markets” in Africa aiming to profit, and makes reference to the direct interest of the Gates Foundation to maximize Monsanto’s profits.

The report called “Who Benefits from GM Crops: an industry built on myths” highlights that this alliance between Gates and Monsanto causes serious impacts on small-farmers and peasant communities in Africa.

La Via Campesina had already denounced in 2010 that “The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust’s purchase of Monsanto shares indicates that the Gates Foundation’s interest in promoting the company’s seed is less about philanthropy than about profit-making. The Foundation is helping to open new markets for Monsanto.”

But this seemingly indirect collaboration is not new. The foundation established by Bill and Melinda Gates in 1994 has already invested millions of dollars in the Rockefeller Foundation, aiming to implement the controversial Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), which is opening the African market to Monsanto, Dupont and Syngenta’s products.

It is estimated that the foundation donated 456 million dollars to AGRA and the clearest case of links with these biotechnology companies seems to be in Kenya, where most economic resources end up in the hands of local organizations linked to Monsanto.

“The Gates Foundation continues to push Monsanto’s products on the poor, despite mounting evidence of the ecological, economic and physical dangers of producing and consuming GE crops and agrochemicals”, stated La Via Campesina in September.

The news also had an impact in Haitian peasant organizations, where Monsanto had donated 475 tonnes of GM seed to “support” the victims of the earthquake.

“It is really shocking for the peasant organizations and social movements in Haiti to learn about the decision of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to buy Monsanto shares while it is giving money for agricultural projects in Haiti that promote the company’s seed and agrochemicals”, said Chavannes Jean-Baptiste from the Papaye peasant movement from Haiti, according to the Friends of the Earth International’s publication.