Anyone who has traveled through the American Southeast -- Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama -- will see hundreds, no thousands, of deserted chicken coops. They were built by people desperately trying to rise out of poverty and who signed contracts with the Tyson corporation to raise chickens. But the contract had some provisions in it. They had to buy their eggs from Tyson, and the feed, and when the chickens were ready for market, Tyson was to be the only market. Tyson named their prices from start to finish; and when disease or disaster wiped out a crop, as it often inevitably did, the chicken farmer went broke and the coops were abandoned. Sure, Bill Gates, just raise chickens.
Gates, one will recall, is the man who once said that if you are born poor, it is not your fault, but if you die poor, it is your fault. This man is monumentally insensitive and he thinks he has the answers to the world's problems.
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Gene V Glass Arizona State University ~ University of Colorado Boulder National Education Policy Center ~ San José State University |
The opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not represent the official position of the National Education Policy Center, Arizona State University, University of Colorado Boulder, nor San José State University.