The Uruguayan government talked to the founding of Bill and Melinda Gates to change its mind about beef production

The Minister of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries in Uruguay, Fernando Mattos, held a meeting with several representatives of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He was accompanied from Uruguay by the undersecretary of the portfolio, Juan Ignacio Buffa, and the president of the National Institute for Agricultural Research (INIA) and José Bonica.

On the other hand, this Thursday the Foundation's director, Samuel Thevasagayam, and other members such as Alfred de Vries; Brantley Browning and Ruben Echeverria were present.

The delegation arrived in Uruguay following an invitation from the Uruguayan government during a videoconference in December 2021, in which there was a dialogue about the Uruguayan meat production system. This was followed by the statements of Bill Gates on livestock production systems and their environmental pollution, which prompted a public letter from Minister Mattos, when he was not yet in that position.

At that time, Mattos was serving as president of the National Meat Institute. In that letter, the minister now rejected the Microsoft director's “assertions” as “reckless and unfounded” and defended the Uruguayan livestock production system of natural pastures. He assured that “it is a deliberate deception for the consumer to call meat a product that should not be called that way”.

“Call it what you want, but it's not meat!” , said Mattos and invited Gates to learn about the Uruguayan system.

During this visit, the minister stated that there were several coincidences with the foundation that provides support to agriculture and livestock in Africa and Southeast Asia. “They are very impressed by the institutional strength, the productive system, respect for biodiversity and the environment, research and academic work in the search for a sustainable production system and the commitment to reducing greenhouse gases in livestock agricultural production that Uruguay has. ”, emphasized Mattos.

In this regard, the chief stressed that opportunities are opening up for work in conjunction with the application of livestock technologies, genetic improvement, animal health and research into potential mechanisms to continue the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

On Tuesday, representatives of the foundation, together with the Ministry authorities, toured the INIA experimental station La Estanzuela, in the department of Colonia, in the west of the country. They came to know the Uruguayan production model and visited a site with soil rotation experiments for pastures; research facilities in the dairy area of the experimental dairy unit and the animal health platform.

The next day, they continued touring and passed through a family livestock farm in the department of Florida, in the center of the country.

The previous videoconference

In December 2021, Minister Mattos's team gave a presentation on the conditions under which meat is produced in Uruguay. He highlighted the unique characteristics that Uruguay presents in its land and in its production process.

The exhibition presented the reasons why Uruguay stands out from the continent, due to its “deep commitment” to economically profitable, socially responsible and environmentally sustainable production.

For their part, the nine representatives of the Gates Foundation who participated in the videoconference presented several experiences that the institution has been developing in countries in Africa and Asia. They are based on systems for diagnosing and supporting communities, many of them dedicated to livestock farming with low-efficiency productive systems, related to vulnerable and low-income populations.

At the end of the meeting, Minister Mattos reiterated the invitation to the Gates Foundation to visit Uruguay and declared that “this first contact can be the basis for development to position Uruguay as the basis of a continent with which the foundation has not yet worked.”

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