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United Poultry Concerns, Inc.
PO Box 150
Machipongo, VA 23405-0150
757-678-7875
FAX: 757-678-5070
www.upc-online.org

January 30, 2014

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
500 Fifth Avenue North
Seattle, WA 98109

Dear Bill and Melinda Gates:

A January 2014 article in Mother Jones magazine reports that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is helping Kentucky Fried Chicken become established in Africa by funding a nonprofit partner of Cargill called TechnoServe to convert small African farmers into industrial soybean producers to supply KFC, Burger King and other fast-food chains with soy to feed factory-farmed chickens. Is this true?

If true, we are shocked. We urge the Gates Foundation to divest its financial interests in corporations that facilitate raising chickens and other animals for human consumption. Bill Gates’s 2013 website article, “Food is Ripe for Innovation,” urges that plant protein should be produced to be fed directly to humans rather than channeled, inefficiently and unhealthfully, through the bodies of factory-farmed animals. KFC chickens are raised in squalor and misery. They are loaded with pathogens that make people sick. The poultry industry devastates the environment and contributes to exorbitant health care costs. How can the Gates Foundation support KFC while claiming to care about ethical food production and healthy eating habits?

Growing soybeans to be fed to tens of billions of chickens for 7 billion people to eat is irresponsible, inefficient and environmentally destructive. Industrial chicken production is cruel and immoral. Growing soybeans and other plant proteins for people to eat directly in the form of vegan food products, including vegan meat alternatives, is exactly what Bill Gates is on record praising as delicious, nutritious and the way of the future.

We look forward to a meaningful response from the Gates Foundation to share with our members and supporters throughout the world. We hope to be able to share Good News.

Thank you for your attention.

Sincerely,

signature

Karen Davis, PhD
President
United Poultry Concerns
12325 Seaside Road, PO Box 150
Machipongo, VA 23405
Office: 757-678-7875
Email: Karen@UPC-online.org


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United Poultry Concerns is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that promotes the
compassionate and respectful treatment of domestic fowl. http://www.upc-online.org

Federal ID: 52-1705678