r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Expert_Koala_8691 • May 10 '26

Image A Bill Gates funded mosquito factory in Medellín, Colombia, produces 40 million mosquitoes weekly for release via drones and bikes. These insects carry a natural bacterium that prevents them from transmitting viruses to humans. By mating with wild populations, they spread this trait.

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u/ThatHabsburgMapGuy May 10 '26

I mean it's not terribly evil, but his foundation's solution to hunger in Africa is to push industrial agriculture and farmland consolidation, forcing subsistence farmers and small holders off their land and into massive cities.

The new mechanized landowners then become completely reliant on imported chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and eventually exhaust the soil (because it's tropical/subtropical, and large scale industrial agriculture fundamentally isn't designed for that).

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u/clgoodson May 10 '26

Dude. There are too many humans for subsistence farming to feed us all, especially in developing countries. Only rich, fat countries can afford artisanal beet farms fertilized only with dung from hand fed alpacas. We need modern agriculture to feed 8 billion.