Progress and Partners on the (Food) Pipeline
WISDOM Good Works is excited to announce we have enrolled several partners in our pilot program to demonstrate how we can safely and humanely control rodent overpopulation along the food pipeline using fertility-control technology.
We’ve engaged several organizations and facilities to be part of our study, which includes small farms and gardens, feed storage and distribution facilities, and end users of food products. They are:
- Brookside Community Garden in Boston, where local food growers have enthusiastically embraced being able to keep rodents out of their plots without resorting to lethal means.
- Olsen’s Grain, which has been providing pet, livestock, and wild bird feeds in northern Arizona for almost 45 years. In addition to its retail stores, the Olsen’s family runs major feed storage and distribution facilities.
- Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah, where we are monitoring the efficacy of our fertility-control technology in two of their animal sanctuaries, so that the food intended for the animals they house is not consumed by mice or rats.
Our mix of partners is decidedly diverse, with nonprofits and commercial entities, volunteers and professionals, and locations across the country. Each partner represents a vital part of the food pipeline. We are also working to secure additional partners, including a food production facility. We anticipate we’ll be able to make an exciting announcement on that front in the coming weeks.
Why are we doing this? And why is the grant-making juggernaut Open Philanthropy funding this effort as part of its focus on global health and wellbeing?
Because one of the most profound benefits of controlling rodent overpopulation is food security.
Mice and rats can consume or damage crops in the field, during processing, and while food is being stored or transported. In fact, when I worked with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, I learned that when the United States ships wheat to nations in Africa, up to 25% of the shipment can be lost to rodent infestation.
Imagine if we could cut that amount in half – how many more people could we feed? Would we have the global food insecurity we face now?
Our primary objectives in this study is to demonstrate that fertility control is sustainable and far more effective and affordable than poison. From what our partners are telling us, we already know what we have to offer will cost them one-tenth of the current, lethal solutions available to them.
More importantly, our fertility-control product does not have the adverse effects on farm animals, humans, wildlife, or the soil and water that is associated with rodenticides.
We’ll keep you updated as we get the results from these various partners and track how well our all-natural fertility-control technology does in these various sites. Once this pilot program is complete, we hope to expand our technology and protocols and scale up the benefits of fertility-control technology to protect the food pipeline affordably and humanely.
We are so grateful to our partners and to Open Philanthropy for making this pilot program possible and look forward to sharing the results with you in the coming months.
