The Community Alliance for Global Justice (CAGJ) and the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA)

just released the fourth part of the Rich Appetites short film series, called Science. The new episode talks about
how philanthropy in the West is hurting traditional agroecological practises in Africa.

In the most recent episode, we talk about how important it is to back local agroecology projects instead of
industrialised agribusiness models. Farmers in Africa are asking for more help to do agroecology.

The episode also tries to disprove the idea that agroecology is old-fashioned or not based on research. "What we
wanted to do was show that agroecology is a science in and of itself." AGRA Watch Research Consultant for
CAGJ Ashley Fent tells Food Tank. "Agroecology is really about embracing the variety and complexity of
interactions and relationships in the natural world and then trying to build those into agriculture, which is
fundamentally scientific."

"Time and time again, scientific studies show that agroecology increases yields and provides healthy,
sustainable diets while lowering input costs and making farms more profitable," the episode says.

The episode shows that when farmers in Benin used sustainable land management practices, they got 50–60%
more crops. When farmers in Malawi grew a variety of crops and added organic materials to the soil, household
food security went up by 33%. Dr. Mamadou Gota, who is the Executive Director of the Institute for Research
and Promotion of Alternatives in Development (IRPAD), says that agroecology, not biotechnology, is the
reason why a growing population can support high levels of production. He says, "They have been able to feed
themselves because people have fought back and kept using the agroecological system."

Even though there is science behind agroecology in Africa, Science says that large charities tend to give money
to industrialised ways of farming. These models hurt small farmers, the health of the environment, biodiversity,
and traditional ways of eating. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), which gave money to
thousands of projects that used technology and chemicals, gets a lot of attention in this episode. Only one of the
projects that the Foundation funds is directly about agroecology.

The show says that the BMGF only backs a small number of scientific methods. These don't solve systemic
problems like hunger or the climate crisis, but they do give agribusiness room to grow. Fent expands on this
point by saying that this narrow view of science is part of a bigger problem that often puts technology-based
science above all other types of science.

The story Science builds on the previous parts of the film to show that sending agribusiness models to Africa is
a bad idea from a scientific point of view. "What we really wanted to do with the films was to criticise the
African Green Revolution and the role of the BMGF in promoting philanthro-capitalism, which we think is a
really destructive and counterproductive way to help people." Fent tells Food Tank. She goes on to say that
philanthrocapitalism "undermines the science that people have been doing for a long time."