April 8, 2008 - 12:00am
By Nikhita Parandekar
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation website declares that two simple values lie at the core of the foundation’s work: all lives, no matter where they are being lived, have equal value; and to whom much is given, much is expected.
To this extent, the Gates Foundation has granted Cornell $26.8 million to fund the Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat program.
“The overall mission of this project is to protect world wheat production from the urgent threat posed by new variants of stem rust disease emerging out of East Africa,” reads the project’s executive summary. “The expected impact is to prevent catastrophic losses of wheat production among resource-poor farmers in Africa and Asia.”
