Bill Gates knows everything. He even knows how poor people can raise themselves out of poverty. With all his billions, he has become an expert on everything there is to know.
He advises poor people everywhere to keep chickens if they want a better life.
That’s better than VAMming their teachers.
Poor Bill Gates. He doesn’t have anyone near him or on his payroll to tell him when to be quiet.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Like Bill Gates, I live in Seattle. Chicken raising is very popular out here. Unfortunately, it’s as popular with the raccoons as it is people, and many folks I know gave up after losing their birds to coons. We can’t all afford full-time guards for our chicken coops the way he presumably can.
Raising chickens is a great idea . . . Eggs are very nutritious. I’m sorry you miss the point of his suggesting it.
My late father raised chickens when I was growing up in Houston. I now live in a high/rise building and I don’t think the management or my neighbors would want me to raise chickens in the apartment.
The fact is that I don’t like jokes
Bill Gates is the one that will close his gate and will stay out of the kingdom of God, and he can raise chickens himself. Poor people who let him control them. He can control the world but he can’t control me. Why? Because I have principles. Principles are priceless. He’s not the owner of the universe, he pensado his own Life. Bill gates is a Bill criminal. He has to think before he makes those dumb comments. Bill gates is not smart, Donald trump talks without thinking, and Donald T. Sterling was kicked out for the Ex- Microsoft CEO. Was that a plan, or a coincidence? All 3 are millionaires, 2 of them are racists. And what about Bill Gates who is the master brain? All of them have 3 things in common privatize the scholar system for good or just to get wealthy. The
Why fix any systemic issues when the poor can just raise chickens?
The point is that philanthro-capitalism, as well as another piece of Gates advice, is faux-generosity.
Chickens and eggs are cheap….the farmers are not making a lot of money . My parents were dairy farmers and money was pretty tight. The middle man makes more than the farmer. Easy for the rich to say “raise chickens”….maybe in Africa that is good advice.
You missed the point totally.
Bill Gates wants people in sub-Saharan Africa to raise the chickens that have been “specially bred” by his foundation:
“The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is now breeding the two types of livestock to try to create super birds that are both resistant to disease and extremely productive.” (Forbes)
Could there be a profit for Bill Gates to make in chickens? I’d pass.
I am a long-time supporter of the Heifer Project. I’d love to see more people support this model. Chickens are not the only critter the Heifer Project gives away to those who might benefit. They also give bee hives, goats, oxen, rabbits, etc. They train the recipients to care for the animals, and also require that they pass along the gift by giving the first-born off-spring to another family.
The children’s book, Beatrice’s Goat https://www.amazon.com/Beatrices-Goat-Page-McBrier/dp/0689869908/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1465587059&sr=1-1&keywords=beatrice%27s+goat tells the remarkable story of a young Ugandan girl who was given a goat, and was consequently able to fund her education.
Certainly the Heifer Project is not the only prescription for eliminating poverty, but it can be part of the solution. I appreciate Bill Gate’s interest in this model.
Diane, I hope you and your readers will google The Heifer Project and consider making a donation despite Bill Gate’s involvement.
I have donated to the Heifer Project many times. Especially good as a birthday present for children to teach them about the good feeling you get when you help someone else.
I didn’t mean to belittle the idea of raising chickens. I would have been impressed if Bill gates had said he was giving away 100 million chickens to poor families in Africa, India, and other nations. Send chickens.
I too have supported the Heifer Project which is kind of like the “give a man to fish or teach a man to fish” type of thinking, a worthy cause. Gates is probably thinking of Africa, although chicken farming is becoming more popular in America due to people wanting to know what is in their food. In Africa and Haiti craft co-ops have helped to elevate a women and their children from poverty. Who knows? Maybe Gates wants to take on Colonel Sanders? It might be a better bet than the Common Core!
The chicken essay, if you link to it, includes this info:
Thank you Gates Notes Insiders! For our Coop Dreams giveaway, I partnered with Heifer International to donate more than 100,000 chickens on behalf of the Gates Notes Insider community. The campaign is now closed, but we may do something like it again.
https://www.gatesnotes.com/Development/Why-I-Would-Raise-Chickens
Not so many chickens, perhaps, but Gates has partnered much more substantially with the Heifer Project already.
http://www.heifer.org/whencowsfly/stories/85million-from-gates.html
Perhaps, Lucia, bill Gates can continue to donate to organization that know what they are doing and not insert himself in the middle. He has a tendency to decide what needs to be done and try to control the agenda. As we have seen, his efforts do not always lead to acceptable outcomes, at which point he ditches the effort and moves on like a kid who has tired of a toy. I especially felt chills when he talked about developing a couple of superbreeds of chickens. There are reasons for genetic diversity that seem to escape him.
The best that Gates, Buffett, Jamie Dimon, Goldman Sachs and the hedge funds (Paul Singer) can do is stop concentrating wealth, which puts a strangle hold on economic growth and, forces, the people at the bottom, into marginal (if that), cottage industries, like chickens and into the plunder of public schools and to making money off of the misery of prisoners, etc.
Anxious to hear Lucia’s defense of social impact bonds. It will take some fancy footwork to avoid the obvious conclusion that it is ripping off taxpayers at the expense of the most impoverished pre-schoolers.
Perhaps you should designate your next Heifer gift toward the purchase of bees, goats or llamas just to spite Bill G. I also like their garden package…
Diane Ravitch,
I am surprised at your ignorance. The Sun is a British tabloid similar to the National Enquirer in the USA or the Daily Mirror in London. They are not respectable sources for news.
See item 2 and 5 of the description below.
[tab-loid]
Spell Syllables
Examples Word Origin
See more synonyms on Thesaurus.com
noun
1. a newspaper whose pages, usually five columns wide, are about one-half the size of a standard-sized newspaper page.
2. a newspaper this size concentrating on sensational and lurid news, usually heavily illustrated.
3. a short form or version; condensation; synopsis; summary.
adjective
4. compressed or condensed in or as if in a tabloid: a tabloid article; a tabloid account of the adventure.
5. luridly or vulgarly sensational.
You should not use such sensational sources. I can not find any acceptable news sources such as Reuters or UPI or AP quoting this news item.
I have asked this question to the factcheck.org and if they answer I will let you know.
Raj,
I think raising chickens is a swell idea, don’t you? Why try to discredit a good idea?
You are touchy!
IM PRETTY SURE BILL GATES DIDNT KNOW THINGS ABOUT THE CHICKEN YOU EAT,
Do you remember the Joke ”
denial is not a river in Egypt ?
Long history short .
1- Extreme salmonella ?
2-E.Coll ?
3-Arsenic ?
4-Antibiotics ?
5-Chicken Yuckets ?
6-Chicken from China ?
7-Cruelty to animals .?
Can someone answer to these questions? Can someone answer how bill gates can give so many ideas at the same time? Microsoft = big money. Second, why is he getting focused in charter schools? Long story short, the only one who has ruined the country is Fidel Castro who thinks he knows it all but doesn’t know anything, replying to those comments your wasting your time.
Please refer to:
https://www.gatesnotes.com/
I believe an apology is in order.
Raj,
You haven’t apologized yet. Yes, Gates did recommend that poor people should raise chickens. It is not a lie. Apology?
Raj:
Don’t you feel so low in your expression?
Billionaire Gate has caused much damages in American Public Education = enforcing severe stresses on children in K-12 through INVALID and strenuous testing schemes PLUS nonsensical VAM evaluation on all educators.
Poor people are happy to receive chicken funding, but not billionaire’s fowl advice and fowl chemical injection.
I am skeptical billionaires’ idea to improve people’s living while they hide their wealth offshore, commit tax evasion, and loot Public Education Fund in billions of dollars. Back2basic
Raj “You should not use such sensational sources. I can not find any acceptable news sources such as Reuters or UPI or AP quoting this news item.”
I think I found the source of the chicken hoax in this vulgarishly sensational tabloid
https://www.gatesnotes.com/Development/Why-I-Would-Raise-Chickens
I admit, though, this source was darn difficult to find: I used my secret weapon called duckduckgo.com (another poultry smelling link to a hoax) and copied-pasted the sacred mantra
‘If I were living in extreme poverty, I’d want to raise chickens,’
Here is the hoaxy result
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%27If+I+were+living+in+extreme+poverty%2C+I%27d+want+to+raise+chickens%2C%27&t=lm&ia=web
Your answer defines ignorance…. apparently this is something you are acquainted with.
I approve of chicken-raising, generally.
In other news, people in Kansas hate ed reform:
“A new poll out today contains a big surprise about the U.S. presidential race in Kansas.
Hillary Clinton is a hot choice with Sunflower State voters compared to Democratic presidential candidates in the past.
Here’s the no-surprise but still important part of the poll.
People are really unhappy with their elected officials — Gov. Sam Brownback and the Kansas Legislature —especially when it comes to school funding. That’s satisfying to know now that Brownback has called lawmakers back into special session on June 23 to deal with proper funding for public education.”
Too bad Democrats don’t support public schools either or they could really do something with this 🙂
Go Kansas! Get your schools back.
http://www.kansascity.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/yael-t-abouhalkah/article83006987.html
I believe some might be missing the rub regarding the “Gates’ revelation”.
There is nothing negative about raising chickens, or for that matter, the Heifer Project. (I have the book, BEATRICE’S GOAT, and have shared it many times with my elementary art students).
It’s all about the person Gates, the multi-billionaire (!) sharing his “wisdom”–regarding how those in poverty can bail themselves out.
I am listening Muhammad Ali’s funeral. Liberal American Rabbi Michael Lerner spoke, and, oh how elequently he spoke. He offers so much more than having chickens to bring us out of poverty, but certainly it’s certainly nothing Gates would want to hear.
If you’ve not heard Lerner’s message, I hope you do so.
Agree. chose to listen to tributes to Muhammad Ali instead of Hillary. A moving tribute. Also worth watching, Elizabeth Warren speaking to lawyers and judges about Trump. Both on C-Span
I’m Sorry if you don’t like it }
Bill Gates is the one that will close his gate and will stay out of the kingdom of God, and he can raise chickens himself. Poor people who let him control them. He can control the world but he can’t control me. Why? Because I have principles. Principles are priceless. He’s not the owner of the universe, he pensado his own Life. Bill gates is a Bill criminal. He has to think before he makes those dumb comments. Bill gates is not smart, Donald trump talks without thinking, and Donald T. Sterling was kicked out for the Ex- Microsoft CEO. Was that a plan, or a coincidence? All 3 are millionaires, 2 of them are racists. And what about Bill Gates who is the master brain? All of them have 3 things in common privatize the scholar system for good or just to get wealthy.
Really?
To paraphrase the message on a T-shirt I dare not buy:
I don’t need Google
Mr. Bill Gates knows everything!
Bill Gates is probably quite literally “behind” the Bing search — sitting at his computer answering queries.
lol Poet – all roads lead to Gates
America today is suffering from an epidemic of “The Billionaires’ Disease,” and this disease has brought paralysis to our government and ruin to our schools. Most billionaires — with the exception of Warren Buffett — are delusional. They have accumulated great wealth and all the things that go with it, such as being surrounded by sycophants who assure them that they are geniuses at everything. In fact, most billionaires not only believe themselves to be geniuses at everything, but believe that they alone are responsible for the wealth they have accumulated; they rationalize away the key and essential roles played by others in the success of their businesses. In their delusion they also think that their self-identified genius can be applied to other areas, such as government and public education, regardless of the fact that they have no experience or expertise in these areas. So what we have today are billionaires with no governmental experience who think they know best who our elected officials should be and what government should or shouldn’t do, and of course they say that what the government shouldn’t do is make corporations pay a fair share of taxes. And there are billionaires who never taught a classroom full of children but who think they know exactly what “reforms” are needed in public education. And, of course, what’s needed is the charter school business model that bleeds tax money from genuine public schools and puts public taxpayer money into the pockets of private charter school operators who don’t file the same reports that true public schools file to tell taxpayers just where their tax money is actually going. And of course there are plenty of simpering sycophants who tell the billionaires how insightful they are because these sycophants see an opportunity to cash in on unregulated charter schools to bleed tax money away from children and into their own pockets. If only there was a cure for The Billionaires’ Disease, perhaps the billionaires could turn their resources to combating the true root causes of problems not only in schools but throughout our society: Poverty and racial discrimination.
Not to mention the celebrities who gained their wealth by athletics or music…..who have financiers behind them (Agassi, Sean Combs) advising them to invest in charter schools. What has become of Oprah and her schools?
These “do good” billionaires are no more interested in education than they are in cleaning their own abodes; they are moved by the ROI and allow their accountants and managers steer them into “ventures” where they lend their names and celebrity for a return on investment.
Pretty soon, there will be Kardashian charters springing up where the curriculum will be how to pout, how to dress like a tramp, and how to market a sex tape. Stranger things have happened in the world of education where a fading basketball player can become Secretary of Education and a TFA nothing can become Chancellor of Washington DC schools and Wendy Kopp can amass billions in taxpayer dollars and have her husbands chain of charters similarly bankrolled. Taxation without representation – why are not the Tea Partiers balking about this?
What a coincidence, it’s a cheap solution too!
In other news, Gates: water is wet. I learned the chicken lesson in world travel 1970 (when travel was cheap), having shared many a Mexican bus ride & southern Italian train ride w/ the critters.
This is like a really twisted version of ‘Being There’. Gates doesn’t walk on water in the end, he starts drinking untreated waste and hiring chickens instead of people.
There is nothing like helping people out of poverty but it is not one size fits all. We have see or experience Bill’s knowledge in the Education field. Oh no stick to chickens Bill.
Perhaps I missed something when I posted this Story on Long Island opt out last night from the Alternet Site. Or maybe my disdain. for meddling Oligarchs and Plutocrats makes me always suspicious of their motives . Get them hooked on Chicken then sell them your cheaper alternative . Am I being too cynical
“Billionaire Prima Donna: Bill Gates Urges the World’s Poor to Be Chicken Farmers — While Funding Silicon Valley to Make Eggs Obsolete
Condescending to the extreme.”
http://www.alternet.org/video/schizoid-billionaire-fantasies-bill-gates-wants-worlds-poor-be-chicken-farmers-while-funding
“Gates’ ‘Future of Food’ series is Silicon Valley’s Hampton Creek, which aims to make the egg obsolete and is backed by at least a dozen billionaires, including Bill Gates and Hong Kong’s Li Ka-Shing.”
“The other – Beyond Meat, a tech company from El Segundo, CA, created the notorious ‘bleeding’ burger made from plants. “Bill Gates invested in Beyond Meat—he bought in after finding that their chicken replacement tasted a lot like the real stuff” reported VICE last month.”
In San Francisco, it’s only the wealthy private elementary schools that raise chickens. I toured several elementary schools. Several private schools offered access to beautiful outdoor areas with chickens; the public schools, not so much. In some of the more gentrified public schools, parents raise money and volunteer a lot of time to create such projects in the public schools. I would like to even out the playing field by offering chickens, access to nature, gardening, art, crafts, building, social studies, hands-on science, libraries, cooking, P.E. and experiential learning to all students, regardless of private or public. Perhaps Mr. Gates could help our schools have equal opportunities for such facilities and holistic learning experiences.
Is it safe to say the man has gone entirely insane or is the article taken entirely out of context? He cannot be suggesting that tenants in projects raise chickens in order to lift themselves up.
Donna –
Billy means in Africa, where the poor people are. Here in America, there are no poor people. Just people who aren’t strivers and have to go to public schools because charters don’t want them.
Which came first? The chicken or Bill Gates?
Gates to Poor: Lay an Egg!
Of course, Bill Gates, terminator and creator of everything magical or benign.
Let there be chicken made in my laboratories and call it plant-chicken.
(Testament of Gates, Book of Billy Darwin 11.2, online direct words of wisdom https://www.gatesnotes.com/About-Bill-Gates/Future-of-Food )
Let there be chicken and have them lay eggs and other gifts for the poor.
(New Testament of Gates, Billy O’Naire 9.3; online direct direct words of wisdom https://www.gatesnotes.com/Development/Why-I-Would-Raise-Chickens )
And there is also this (from Luke Skywalker 20)
Lord Gates smirked at his despicables and said “Blessed are the poor, the Kingdom of Chickens is theirs”
John (King James Version)
In the beginning was the Microsoft Word, and the Word was with Gates, and the Word was Gates.
All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
There was a man sent from Gates, whose name was Coleman.
The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Common Core, that all men (and women, especially teachers) through him might believe.
He was not that Core, but was sent to bear witness of that Core.
That was the True Core, which coreth every man that cometh into the world.
..and you know the rest of the story
From anti chicken a few years ago now pro chicken.
If Gates has his way we’re going beyond eggs and meat, using new substitutes that taste the same but that we can make in a lab instead of a farm, so we can feed the entire planet.
http://www.fastcoexist.com/1681647/the-3-companies-that-bill-gates-thinks-are-shaping-the-future-of-food
This guy is exciting: he takes our boring world and turns it up side down in a matter of few years. He has great ideas and lots of money. The best combination.
I have my own modest idea: promote eggs produced by chicken and eggs produced in labs simultaneously and let the two industries compete in developing countries. Or, better yet, just develop the lab-egg industry in the US and allow African countries develop the old style chicken-based egg industry. This way, developing countries will face a competition they cannot win which, of course, is the best way to learn how to be a tough competitor. Best practice!
Either way, these competitions, as all competitions, will make those countries a properly civilized place, poverty will be erased, US style democracy will be established and hence US corporations will have a safe way of moving in and directly help the people to achieve their African dream.
Texas test drama!
tea.texas.gov/interiorpage_wide.aspx?id=51539608658
If the poor really want to be successful they should just do what Gates himself did – lie, cheat and steal – the American way!
I have obtained Bill Gates’ computerized formula for measuring the value added by the chicken. You test the hen on her ability to race pineapples. Then, you measure her sleeves. Then, you give money to one and only one starving Kenyan youth because she has the poultry who eats the most talking fruit, and donate the rest of millions to the region’s political campaigns in exchange for instituting merit feed. Then, you slaughter all the birds that weren’t raised with added hormones, antibiotics, and genetically modified organisms. The formula is too complicated to understand if you’re not a technocrat, so just accept it.
Oh, but the formula is very simple. It’s the same one Einstein gave us
E =mc^2
but in this case, E stands for “eat”, “m” stands for mass and “c” stands for chicken
Oh wait! You’re right. As a matter of fact, it’s even simpler formula than that, a very simple recipe. It’s just that it’s a secret recipe, a technocratic recipe. 16 secret herbs and spices. Finger lickin good.
Oh Diane, you gave me my giggle for the day………….thanks for that!
Breaking: Trump Outdoes Gates; Builds Huts for Poor Out of Coiffed Hair
Bill Gates, like Buffett who gives his “charitable money” to Gates, for spending, know that chickens won’t work. They know that concentrated wealth is the problem and they choose to worsen the condition.
In general everyone who gives new ideas for welfare of people is generally right in treating the symptoms of the problem at the level they see the problem. The big question is what is/are the problems? I agree with Linda that concentration of wealth is a big issue. What is ultimately needed by us and the future generations is a patch of land and a decent approach to having a quality of life that can provide healthy vegetarian food to vegetarians, and other food to meat eaters, while a noble purpose of life becomes evident due to the clean, healthy, and non-violent way of life. Chickens are good for the meat eaters who can honestly kill the chicken themselves or sell in whole without feeling any guilt, and houses made of a certain material are OK for those who do not get a psychological problem due to that, because that would defeat the purpose of a humanitarian work. I personally suggest a way of farming on multistoreyed flats so that the natural human tendencies grown over a period of thousands of years are not challenged suddenly. I hope this has been useful.