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| - In late July 2025, a rumor spread widely across social media platforms that billionaire investor Bill Gates received approval to "secretly" spray synthetic RNA on food crops in the United States.
One Facebook post (archived) with the claim amassed over 69,000 reactions, 38,800 comments and 56,000 shares. It included images of Gates in a crop field, a close-up of him holding a vial and illustrations of mRNA vaccine mechanisms alongside visuals of planes and tractors spraying farmland.
According to the post, Gates had received "approval to 'secretly' spray RNA on food products in the United States" through a new venture called Terrana Biosciences.
The post further claimed that RNA would "fundamentally reprogram" crops' biology and concluded with a line reading, "Critics are now asking.....if RNA can be dispersed on crops under the cover of eco-friendliness, what's preventing its hidden application on humans for 'supposed' disease control?"
Users made similar claims on X and Instagram. One X post (archived) alleged that Gates was "poisoning food" after "poisoning humanity by way of bioweapons." Another (archived) stated, "Bill Gates, through his backing of Flagship Pioneering, has been given the green light to secretly spray synthetic RNA on America's food products."
These claims, however, were false.
There was no credible evidence that Gates has been granted approval, secret or otherwise, to spray RNA (including mRNA, a single-stranded type of RNA) on food crops in the United States. The company at the center of the rumor, Terrana Biosciences, is a newly launched agricultural venture backed by the venture capital firm Flagship Pioneering.
At the time of this writing, Terrana was exploring RNA-based crop protection technology — but the company was still in the research and development phase and none of its products was approved for commercial use. There was no indication that Terrana's products were being deployed in July 2025, nor that they posed a health risk to humans.
A spokesperson for Flagship
How the rumor spread
The rumor appeared to have originated from a July 26 article (archived) from The People's Voice — a rebranded version of NewsPunch, a website with a long history of publishing false information. The article, titled, "Bill Gates Given Green Light to Secretly Spray RNA on Food Products in America," asserted without citing any sources that Gates backed Terrana through Flagship Pioneering and was preparing to "infiltrate crops" with synthetic RNA "without public consent or oversight." Screenshots of the article quickly circulated on social media.
However, no credible sources supported the notion that Gates was involved in Terrana Biosciences or that RNA products were being "secretly" deployed on crops. Claims that the technology was intended to "poison food" were also entirely unfounded.
What Terrana Biosciences is actually doing
Terrana Biosciences was publicly launched in early July 2025 by Flagship Pioneering, which also helped incubate the pharmaceutical and biotech company Moderna. That connection likely fueled speculation linking the company to mRNA vaccines, though Terrana's work is entirely unrelated to human medicine.
According to Terrana's own press release, the company is developing RNA-based agricultural solutions focused on "enhancing crop resilience, protecting yields and addressing critical challenges in the global food system." In an interview with AgFunder News, Terrana CEO Jeremy Rapp compared the technology to a "programmable vaccine" for plants, explaining that "after being sprayed on, the RNA enters the plant through small tears in the leaves." While Terrana is designing its platform to work alongside existing chemical and biological crop protection products, Rapp said the long-term goal is to help farmers "reduce their reliance on chemistry in the future."
As of July 2025, Terrana's products remained in the development and testing phase. There was no record of approval from the regulatory agencies and no evidence that any of the company's products were being used commercially or deployed at scale.
Gates Foundation and Flagship Pioneering
The rumor that Gates was behind Terrana likely stemmed from the fact that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarded two grants in 2024 to Flagship Pioneering companies for unrelated research. One of those companies was Sail Biomedicines, which was also developing an RNA-based solution for malaria prevention.
There was no evidence connecting the Gates Foundation's support to Terrana Biosciences nor any indication that Gates personally backed or approved RNA spraying projects involving food crops. A spokesperson for Flagship Pioneering also explicitly denied these claims.
All in all, there was no evidence that Gates had been granted approval to "secretly" spray RNA on crops in the United States or that he had any involvement in Terrana Biosciences. The company's RNA-based solutions remain in development and have not been authorized for commercial use.
Notably, Gates was the subject of similar rumors in the past, some of which The People's Voice also spread.
In May 2023 we debunked a related false rumor claiming mRNA from COVID-19 vaccines had entered the food supply via genetically modified plants bred to contain it or through the consumption of vaccinated livestock.
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