Thoreau at 200
Don't Let Bill Gates Ban the Hoe

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/07/12/thoreau-at-200-dont-let-bill-gates-ban-the-hoe/
Date Written:  2017-07-12
Publisher:  Counterpunch
Year Published:  2017
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX21117

In support of the so-called 'Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa,' Bill Gates is telling African women in remote villages to put down their hand-held hoes.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

Has Bill Gates spent a planting season kneeling in the soil next to his grandmother, absorbing her stories of the past as they hand-hoed in synchronicity?

Has he had the pleasure of harvesting food for his family through his toil with a hand-held hoe?

Thoreau famously cultivated a bean field with a hand-held hoe by Walden Pond, his Concord, Massachusetts retreat. While doing so, he pondered nature and how to live a meaningful life.

Thoreau proposed to determine what was basic to human survival and then to live as simply as possible.

In mechanization and industrialism, Thoreau foresaw the potential for destruction of nature for commercial and illusory gain.