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Calestous Juma (1953-2017)
Calestous Juma was a Kenyan scientist and university scholar who primarily focused on sustainable development. He served as a Professor of the Practice of International Development and Director of the Science, Technology, and Globalization Project at the Harvard Kennedy School. Juma also served as the director for the Agricultural Innovation in Africa Project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He was born in Busia village on June 9, 1953 to John Kwada Juma and Clementina Nabwire and grew up in Port Victoria, Kenya. Juma attended Port Victoria Secondary School and later Egoji Teachers’ Training College in Kenya in 1974. After his certification, Juma taught science in Mombasa, Kenya, and wrote for the Daily Nation newspaper. In 1978, he became the first full-time environment and science correspondent for the newspaper.
In 1979, Juma became a researcher and editor for Environment Liaison Centre, an NGO based in Nairobi, Kenya. He then enrolled at the University of Sussex in England with a full scholarship 1982, receiving an MSc in Science, Technology and Industrialization in 1983 and a DPhil in Science and Technology Policy in 1987.
Juma is considered a revolutionary figure in scientific research; he advocated for the use of technology and innovation for development. Juma established Africa’s first science policy think tank African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS) in 1989. ACTS released a study called “Innovation and Sovereignty,” which helped with the creation of the first industrial property legislation in Kenya. At ACTS, he led a study called Economic Reform and Environment in Africa, which researched the connections between economic innovation, conservation management, and technological transformation in developing nations to further understand how socio-economic environments impact the integration of new technologies.
This research was highlighted in some of his first works Long-Run Economics: An Evolutionary Approach to Economic Growth (London: Pinter, 1987) and The Gene Hunters: Biotechnology and the Scramble for Seeds (Princeton: Princeton University Press and Zed Books, 1989).
Juma moved to Montreal, Quebec Canada in 1995 to serve as the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity first executive director. However, he left shortly afterwards because he felt the UN agency placed too many limitations on Africa’s ability to crop genetically modified foods. In 1998, Juma moved to Harvard to continue his work. There he created a UN task force that developed ways in which the developing world can attain Millennium Development Goals through technology and science. In addition, Juma in 2005, served at the US National Academy of Sciences as the Global Challenges and Biotechnology chair, and in 2012 served as co-chair of the African Union High-Level Panel on Modern Biotechnology. One of Juma’s last works, before he passed, was Innovation and Its Enemies: Why People Resist New Technologies, published by Oxford University Press in 2016.
Calestous Juma died on December 15, 2017 in Boston, Massachusetts at the age of 54. He is survived by his wife Alison Field-Juma, and his son Eric Juma.

After Turning Down $1M On Shark Tank, She Is Set To Become World’s Largest Vegan Fried Chicken Maker
Many entrepreneurs would grab a $1 million investment opportunity from any credible investor. But that was not the case for Deborah Torres when angel investor Mark Cuban offered to invest in her fried chicken company, Atlas Monroe.
Torres had appeared on ABC’s Shark Tank in 2019 to pitch her company for investment and was offered $1 million for 100% of the company. However, she refused the investment because Cuban and guest investor Rohan Oza’s offer did not reflect the true value of her company.
“The fact you guys are even offering a million dollars lets me know you do understand what we are worth,” Torres said on the show.
CNBC quoted her as saying, “As soon as we get our facility, we will fulfill the orders and hit a million dollars immediately.”
“We walked away from a million dollars, and we’re walking into $24 million. We know we have something really extraordinary in our hands,” she said at the time.
Since then, her company has made giant strides in the food industry. Atlas Monroe is set to become the largest vegan fried chicken company in the world. This comes as the company recently acquired its own multi-million-dollar manufacturing plant at a two-story, 10,000-square-foot warehouse in San Diego, CA, VegNews reported. The company is eyeing a second location this year after exceeding $2 million in online sales since Torres appeared on the show.
Since the groundbreaking sales, the company now sells a range of vegan meat substitutes including deep-fried turkey, ribs, bacon, beef, and fried chicken.
Meanwhile, Torres has accused ‘Shark Tank’ of not fairly representing her on the show. “On [Shark Tank] there were many edits of conversations to make it appear that I wasn’t intelligent enough for obvious dramatic effects of the ‘shocking’ ending. I was completely blindsided when it aired and had no idea the effect it would have on my life,” the California entrepreneur told VegNews.
“I mean, if we are going to talk about it honestly, just imagine being a Black woman in America graduating high school at age 15 and receiving your first degree at 17 all to be made to look like an idiot on national television for the sake of views, when you were just trying to pursue your dreams—it was crushing, to say the least. I think God works in mysterious ways because what was meant to harm me propelled me to where I am today—the proud and sole owner of the world’s largest vegan fried chicken manufacturing company and 100-percent owner of a multi-million dollar manufacturing facility.”
According to CNBC, Torres was inspired to develop her plant-based food after her father was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. The move was to develop a healthy lifestyle among her family.
“My whole family and I went on a raw, vegan, and organic diet for 90 days. We grew really ‘hangry’ at each other from just eating salads and fruit salads,” Torres said. “After the 90 days, [my father] was completely healed. We vowed to stay organic, plant-based, and natural. We continued to experiment, and Atlas Monroe was born.”