Powerful groups — including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) — insist African farmers should follow the U.S. industrial agriculture model.

The organizations have been trying to shape Africa's food policies for decades, despite proof their intervention is doing more harm than good.

But Africans are pushing back and trying to empower local farmers. "The future of African food systems must be in African hands," said a representative of the Uganda-based Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA).

A three-part video series "Rich Appetites: How Big Philanthropy Is Shaping the Future of Food in Africa" explains why exporting the U.S. agribusiness model to Africa is a "grave mistake."

Industrial agriculture causes biodiversity loss, hurts small-scale farmers and causes environmental harm — all while failing to solve hunger, according to AFSA and AGRA Watch, which created the short-film series.

The series exposes how "Big Philanthropy" — namely the Gates Foundation — is destroying farming and food in Africa by seizing control from local interests.

It also reveals what the BMGF gains from its so-called philanthropic work in Africa.

Together, the BMGF and Rockefeller Foundation in 2006 founded the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).

The foundations claimed AGRA would bring about a "Green Revolution" in Africa by increasing the productivity of small farms, thus lifting people out of poverty and alleviating hunger.

AGRA promised this through the use of "improved inputs" including fertilizer and "advanced seeds."

AGRA Watch, founded to respond to and challenge AGRA's policies, calls BMGF's efforts "philanthrocapitalism based on biopiracy."