How Warren Buffett and Bill Gates Make a Killing Off the Childhood Obesity Epidemic

By  Brenda Baletti, Ph.D.

Warren Buffett’s vertically integrated investments in the production of high fructose corn syrup — a key ingredient in highly processed foods and contributor to obesity in kids — generates massive profits for himself and Bill Gates.

 Childhood obesity rates could double among boys and increase by 125% among girls by 2035, according to a new global report by the World Obesity Federation.

In the U.S., childhood obesity rates tripled in the past three decades, increasing kids’ risks of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and other chronic illnesses.

A report last month by The Hill cited multiple contributors to the obesity epidemic, including too much screen time, lack of access to healthy food and socioeconomic factors. Exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals is also known to play a big role in childhood obesity, studies show.

There’s one thing most experts agree on: Increased consumption of highly processed foods is a leading contributor to the childhood obesity epidemic.

But here’s a lesser-known fact: High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is the lynchpin of the processed food industry — and the HFCS industry has generated massive profits for Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, two of the world’s richest men.

AAP misses real culprits behind obesity epidemic. Buffet + Gates vertically integrated corn syrup by investing in food processing(ADM) fertilizers Oxy, Chevron) pesticides(Monsanto) silos(CTB) railroads(BNSF) processed+fast foods(Kraft,Mondelez,McDonald's)https://t.co/e3TxYSNVkm

— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) February 7, 2023

‘Is the world’s richest man made primarily out of corn syrup?’

In 2015, New York Magazine ran an article — “Is the World’s Richest Man Made Primarily Out of Corn Syrup?” — in the Intelligencer’s “Diets” section.

The article told a light-hearted story about how Warren Buffett loves Coke, potato chips and other foods with high quantities of corn syrup so much — just like he did when he was a kid — that he bought up the companies that made them.

Buffett is the fifth-richest person in the world with a net worth of $108 billion. His wealth comes from investments in Berkshire Hathaway, the publicly traded multinational conglomerate company of which he has been CEO and chairman since 1970.

Berkshire Hathaway’s investment strategy is to identify valuable companies and acquire increasingly large portions of them.

A look into the history of Berkshire Hathaway’s holdings reveals the deeper truth behind the New York Magazine article showing that for more than two decades, Berkshire Hathaway acquired large stakes in all stages of production in the HFCS industry, from farmland to processed food companies.

This vertical integration investment strategy means that a substantial portion of Berkshire Hathaway’s profits is linked to the proliferation of corn syrup in the food system.

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Berkshire Hathaway also owns major stakes in some of the largest processed food companies — like Coca-Cola and Kraft Heinz — that use HFCS and other obesogens in their products, which they directly market to kids.

These companies profit off of rising food prices, while consumers’ food bills soar. Kraft Heinz’s quarterly sales rose 10% to $7.38 billion in the last quarter of 2022, beating Wall Street’s expectations, the Wall Street Journal reported. The food conglomerate raised prices 15% last year.

They also benefit from close relationships with organizations meant to protect people’s health — and particularly children’s health — from the damage associated with commodities like HFCS.

For example, peer-reviewed research reveals Coca-Cola’s “close collaboration with the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) … The Obesity Society (TOS), and the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP).”

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When Berkshire Hathaway profits, Gates profits

Warren Buffett isn’t the only one of the world’s richest people to make his fortune from Berkshire Hathaway. It is nearly impossible to separate Buffett’s wealth from that of his friend and business associate of 32 years, Bill Gates.

Gates, the fourth-richest person in the world with a net worth of $133 billion, holds much of his wealth in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Berkshire Hathaway is the foundation’s largest holding.

Gates served on the board of Berkshire Hathaway from 2004 to 2020. Since 2006, Buffett has given $45 billion to the Gates Foundation and he served as a member of the three-person board of directors of the foundation until Bill and Melinda Gates split up in 2021.

So Berkshire Hathaway’s profits have been Gates’ profits.

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According to a 2020 investigation published in the Columbia Journalism Review, media coverage that tends to depict billionaires like Buffett and Gates as leaders, geniuses and benevolent stewards of society is linked to the fact that as funding for media collapsed over the last decade, the Gates Foundation stepped in to fill the gap.

In 2020 alone, for example, the foundation gave more than $250 million to news organizations including BBC, NBC, Al Jazeera, ProPublica, National Journal, The Guardian, Univision, Medium, the Financial Times, The Atlantic, the Texas Tribune, Gannett, Washington Monthly, Le Monde, and the Center for Investigative Reporting, BBC Media Action and the New York Times’ Neediest Cases Fund.

The money comes with strings attached, limiting the reporting it funds to issues it wants to be covered.

So, while billionaire philanthropists like Buffett and Gates finance media coverage that celebrates them for bankrolling public health initiatives and paints their critics as conspiracy theorists, they continue to make massive profits off the destruction of the food system — and the corresponding destruction of public health.

Obesity makes kids sicker — pandemic lockdowns made kids more obese

Gates and Buffett profited massively from the COVID-19 pandemic because they “bet on Big Pharma” to yield major profits from vaccines.

But the pandemic they profited from was made worse by the obesity epidemic their investments in corn syrup helped drive, according to numerous studies.

Peer-reviewed studies published in major journals like The BMJ established early in the pandemic period that obesity was a major risk factor in poor COVID-19 outcomes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that obesity may triple the risk of hospitalization from a COVID-19 infection.

Obesity is a major COVID-19 risk factor even in young people who are much less susceptible to severe disease.

Systematic reviews and meta‐analyses found that children with obesity are at a higher risk of both severe respiratory disease and multisystem inflammatory syndrome due to COVID-19 relative to healthy children.

The CDC also reported numerous studies showing children diagnosed with obesity may suffer worse outcomes from COVID-19.

Maryanne Demasi, Ph.D., and others advocated early in the pandemic in BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine for dietary interventions to fight the negative effects of COVID-19.

But billionaires and politicians ignored these calls and instead promoted pandemic mitigation measures like lockdowns and school closures that increased rates of childhood obesity to unprecedented levels and made COVID-19 outcomes worse.

Research shows lockdowns and school closures increased childhood obesity because they reduced physical activity, worsened children’s mental health leading to over-eating and increased levels of food insecurity, which is linked to increased processed food consumption.

Coca-Cola, Mondelez and others ‘COVID-washed’ processed foods to grow profits

Peer-reviewed research shows that processed food corporations used the pandemic as a marketing opportunity to promote their unhealthy products to vulnerable populations during a time of increased stress and hardship — what researchers at the University of Auckland in New Zealand call “COVID-washing.”

The CEO of Coca-Cola told investors at the start of the pandemic in 2020 in “every previous crisis, military, economic or pandemic, in the last 134 years, the Coke Company has come out stronger.”

A report by researchers from the Global Health Policy Unit at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, working with the NCD Alliance, found that major processed food corporations like Coca-Cola were able to “adapt quickly and exploit new opportunities” during the COVID-19 pandemic.

They wrote:

“This is illustrated via the pivoting of marketing and promotions to leverage both the pandemic and associated policy responses. For example, snack manufacturers Mondelez [a Berkshire Hathaway company] quickly recognised how lockdown led to increased in-house consumption whereby ‘more grazing, more continuous eating, and snacking takes up a much bigger role.’”

Processed food producers sought to “present themselves and their employees as heroes in the context of the pandemic,” they said.

The report linked to a Kraft Heinz video promoting “everyday heroes” in their processed food supply chain emoting “We Got You America” while visibly promoting core products such as Heinz Tomato Ketchup.

Heinz also partnered with food banks in its Kraft Heinz Project Pantry and Twitter campaign, invoking national solidarity to bring processed foods to low-income people.

According to Paula Johns, director general of ACT Health Promotion, Brazil, quoted in the report during the pandemic, “Unhealthy commodity industries have taken advantage of an adverse environment to sell their products and improve their image in the eyes of consumers.”

For example, Coca-Cola rebranded bottles and cans in Mexico to invoke COVID-19 solidarity, promoted the fact that it shifted advertising budgets to “fight COVID-19,” partnered with the United Nations Development Programme in several countries, funded Red Cross initiatives to link its brand with COVID-19 aid and partnered with the Gates Foundation to promote COVID-19 vaccination in Africa.

Krispy Kreme and Dunkin’ Donuts gave away free donuts to people who showed their vaccination cards in 2021.

This branding was supported by the highest levels of government. In May 2021, McDonald’s and the Biden administration partnered to promote COVID-19 vaccines by advertising together on billboards and on McDonald’s cups and other items.

HFCS is as bad as you thought

Strong and consistent evidence links high sugar consumption and obesity in children and adolescents, with many studies pointing specifically to the role of sugary drinks like Coca-Cola.

Excess dietary sugar adds “empty calories” to the diet, affects hormone and blood sugar levels, stimulates appetite and overeating and replaces healthy foods in a child’s diet.

In the U.S., sugar in processed foods often takes the form of HFCS, a processed sweetener with high levels of fructose — which is harder for the body to break down than natural glucose.

HFCS is cheaper, sweeter and more quickly absorbed into the body than regular sugar. Eating too much can lead to insulin resistance, obesity, type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure.

It can trigger processes that cause liver toxicity and a host of other chronic diseases, and it increases appetite and promotes obesity even more than regular sugar.

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Via https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/bill_gates_warren_buffett_obesity_corn_syrup/