Microsoft's Bill Gates gave his first major speech on agriculture today in Des Moines. Gates has committed $1.4 billion from his foundation to agricultural development, reports Philip Brasher in the Des Moines Register. About 5 percent of that amount will go to biotech projects. Gates' speech was a defense of genetically engineered crops as a way to help poor farmers increase food production. Gates criticized those who were "instantly hostile to any emphasis on productivity" while ignoring food production in a world affected by climate change. 

“They act as if there is no emergency, even though in the poorest, hungriest places on earth, population is growing faster than productivity, and the climate is changing,” Gates said. The Microsoft founder said transgenic crops "can help address farmers' challenges faster and more efficiently than conventional breeding alone." The Gates Foundation will  help develop drought-resistant corn for use in East Africa. Brasher reports that Gates said the seeds would be licensed royalty free to distributors so that there would be no extra cost to farmers. 

“Of course, these technologies must be subject to rigorous scientific review to ensure they are safe and effective,” Gates said. “It’s the responsibility of the governments, farmers and citizens, informed by great science, to choose the best and safest way to help feed their countries.” Gates said the next green revolution “must be guided by smallholder farmers, adapted to local circumstances and sustainable for the economy and the environment.”

If you never want to eat another hamburger, read the New York Times' story about how a young woman (above), a children's dance instructor, will never walk again because she ate, yes, some ground beef in a bun. The very long story by Michael Moss is about meat inspection and how hamburger is made. Stephanie Smith ate a hamber in the early fall of 2007. The meat was tainted with E. coli and within a week she had suffered from seizures and convulsions so violent that doctors placed her in a coma for nine weeks. When she came to, she was paralyzed. The meat was processed by Cargill.

"Ground beef is usually not simply a chunk of meat run through a grinder," Moss wrote. "Instead, records and interviews show, a single portion of hamburger meat is often an amalgam of various grades of meat from different parts of cows and even from different slaughterhouses. These cuts of meat are particularly vulnerable to E. coli contamination, food experts and officials say. Despite this, there is no federal requirement for grinders to test their ingredients for the pathogen." The meat Stephanie ate came from Nebraska, Texas, Uruguay and South Dakota.

Remember, Moss is writing about ground beef that comes prepackaged -- not that might be ground at your local meat market. Anyway, our (un)favorite part of the story was the description of "binder," largely fat and meat scraps companies put together and then treat with ammonia to kill bacteria. It's then mixed with other ground beef to make the final product fattier and cheaper. If your hamburger smells like a kitchen floor, that's why.

A newly published platter of Texas barbecue: scholarly research, with tasty sides of photography, interviews, lists, and even a toothpick dispenser.

Whatever happens day to day with food prices, farmers are getting a smaller share of each dollar than they did a generation ago.