The Agrisol website still says the following although IA State reported they pulled out in February 2012:
"To design the small farmer, outgrower and community development programs, we consulted with agricultural experts from Sokoine University of Agriculture, the leading agricultural institution in our country, as well as local and national officials from our government and others, in a process led by experts from The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Iowa State University, one of the worlds’ leading agricultural institutions. Going forward, we will continue to work with leading agricultural academic institutions in Tanzania, the U.S. and globally to advise us on the small farmer, outgrower and community development elements of the project.
Bruce Rastetter President Pro Temp IA Bd of regents
co-founder and managing director of AgriSol Energy an investment company that specializes in argribusiness.
Mr. Rastetter also is the Chief Executive Officer of Summit Farms, LLC which
started as his family farm and has grown to become a diverse farming operation.
Mr. Rastetter also serves as the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of
Hawkeye Energy Holdings, LLC, which grew to be the third-largest pure play
ethanol producer in the United States, producing 450 million gallons of ethanol
annually, prior to the sale of its four plants to Koch Industries. Prior to
that, Mr. Rastetter had founded feed management, construction, and swine
production businesses which in 1994 he merged to become Heartland Pork
Enterprises. Mr. Rastetter served as Heartland’s Chief Executive Officer until
2004. He had grown the company into the 13th largest pork producer in the
United States before successfully guiding the company through an acquisition by
Christensen Farms."
"Mr. Rastetter is a philanthropist, endowed a chair in
Agricultural Entrepreneurship at Iowa State. nd supporting a variety of efforts
that encourage thoughtful public policy. He currently sits on the boards of
directors of Hawkeye Energy Holdings, LLC, Advanced Bioenergy, American Ag
& Energy Council, and Growth Energy. And in July of 2011, he was elected
President Pro Tem of the Board of Regents, State of Iowa. He earned a BA in
political science from the University of Iowa"
Agrisol's website says it will "help" these folks
farm better with "new" seeds (gmo likely--look at the Oakland
Institute if you haven't yet), "new" forms of farming where they will
be able to make $$ off their farming in addition to feeding their families.
After all, they were only farming on 1 or 2 hectares. It really does contradict itself, initially saying the farmers' land is only about 1 or 2 hectares each, as if this is a very small amount. So, they have made a deal in which each farmer will farm....1 or 2 hectares. Much better.
So Agrisol bought more than 13,000 hectares where they will
have farmers farming 1 or 2 hectares each (which is the same number they were
saying they were already farming before the "purchase"). They promise
to train the farmers, make it a sustainable environment, etc. AgriSol is
partnering with Monsanto (remember, they got one of those tax packages from IA
to come there) and John Deere.
This land is close to Uganda, I don't know who they expect
to have farmers sell to since they are on the edge of the Serengeti and roads
in TZ are not real good or paved. Oh, and it's not like other poor villagers
would be able to buy the maize. Current there is good availability of
fresh fruits and veggies that are essentially organic (ok, except for water and
bugs). The folks I talk to in Dar are aware of this. In fact organic products
in general are much cheaper and easier to find here.
More from Agrisol:
"Eric Peterson, a principal of AgriSol Energy, focuses on project development and management and operations. Mr. Peterson also is the General Manager of Summit Farms, LLC, and is responsible for the operation and management of Summit Farms. Mr. Peterson also is a co-founder and manager of American Heartland Development, LLC, a wind development company started in 2009. Mr. Peterson received a BBA in agricultural business from Iowa State University.
Mr. Peterson currently serves on the advisory board of the Iowa State University College of Agriculture as well as the Iowa Finance Authority Board."
"Eric Peterson, a principal of AgriSol Energy, focuses on project development and management and operations. Mr. Peterson also is the General Manager of Summit Farms, LLC, and is responsible for the operation and management of Summit Farms. Mr. Peterson also is a co-founder and manager of American Heartland Development, LLC, a wind development company started in 2009. Mr. Peterson received a BBA in agricultural business from Iowa State University.
Mr. Peterson currently serves on the advisory board of the Iowa State University College of Agriculture as well as the Iowa Finance Authority Board."
Another connection: Rastetter and a group of mostly local IA guys own the Rural American
Fund http://www.raflp.com/ , a firm that makes
investments in agribusiness. Roger Underwood is a principal in this firm:
"As an Iowa State alumnus, Mr. Underwood was active in
forming the College of Agriculture Alumni Association, serving as its second
president and founding member. In 1996, Mr. Underwood was named Outstanding
Agribusiness Alumni of the Year by the ISU Ag Business Club, and was named
Order of the Knoll Outstanding Young Alumni in 2000 and in 2008 received the
Floyd Andre Award for outstanding accomplishments in business and service to
the College. Roger is a Board Member of the ISU Foundation Board of Governors.....
Underwood has served on the Boards of the Ames Economic Development Commission,
the Gilbert School Foundation and the ISU Research Park and is currently
Chairman of the Iowa State University $800 Million dollar fund-raising
campaign: With Pride and Purpose."
Did I mention previously that the director of Agrisol Tanzania is a former Minister of Trade who left his position due to claims he committed fraud, it seems it is just coming to trial I noticed in the newspaper here). I saw advertisements in the newspapers here from the government looking for for-profit agribusinesses to come to Tanzania. Sad, the poor get more poor, the vegetables and fruit become more toxic as does the water and soil, and the companies make a lot of money and pay little in taxes if anything. I've been told by several people that hotels do this often, they have about a 5 year break, either fewer or no taxes so the company leaves just as the 5 years come up. The hotel is then taken over by another company, refurbished and the cycle continues.
Not all of these corporations are US companies, there are Saudi, Chinese, Emirates, and on. And it isn't only Tanzania, it's Africa and Southeast Asia, Central and South America. I believe I saw that George W. recently bought a lot of land in Paraguay. Anywhere there is money to be made, anywhere there is access to minerals, gas/oil, a place for fracking (the Kochs again). And we already know about the deals companies get to move into states-there's Monsanto again; and the increasing connection between corporations and universities.
Some sites that may be of interest and also what I used as resources to learn all this:
Rural American Fund http://www.raflp.com/
All Africa is a good news website and ran some stories going back further than this one
http://allafrica.com/stories/201202170856.html
I can't get the article to open but this may be of interest since it's a biofuel news site: http://www.biofuelsdigest.com/bdigest/2011/09/14/tanzania-warned-of-farmer-impacts-from-agrisol-energy-land-deal/
I think you might find this blog very interesting about the history of Agrisol, Serengetti, and Tanzania:
http://udadisi.blogspot.com/2011/09/agrisol-energy-serengeti-advisers-land.html
http://allafrica.com/stories/
I can't get the article to open but this may be of interest since it's a biofuel news site: http://www.biofuelsdigest.com/
I think you might find this blog very interesting about the history of Agrisol, Serengetti, and Tanzania:
http://udadisi.blogspot.com/
Another source, search engine for Africa news: http://www.afrora.com/site/news/index.php?id=462632&cursor=0&blogs=0&sort=tv&loc=en_US
The land in question is very close to the Uganda border.
IA State was invited to TZ because of their work in Uganda, I don't know if there is still a possibility of IA State connecting with the TZ project, don't know how close their Uganda work is to the Tazanian one.
The land in question is very close to the Uganda border.
IA State was invited to TZ because of their work in Uganda, I don't know if there is still a possibility of IA State connecting with the TZ project, don't know how close their Uganda work is to the Tazanian one.
WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION document:
www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/
n - 2001 - Related articles
13 Nov 2001 – Statement by the Honourable Iddi Mohamed Simba. Minister for Industry and Trade.
A quick look at Simba finds that he was involved in a banking scam, was a co-founder of Serengeti Advisors with another guy who may have been in the government so it seems to me the way to stay clean is to have all the locals do your dirty work since Serengeti may have done the footwork on getting the land and the govt to move the farmers. . Simba also worked with the World Trade Organization..
http://www.thecitizen.co.tz/news/-/22761-iddi-simba-in-court-over-uda-sh24-billion-scam
Suff on Simba, now in charge of Agrisol Tanzania, and fraud. I think the sugar deal that is mentioned here was another land grab in the northeast where sugar plantations were to be used for ethanol. There is also a plant, mentioned in the agrisol articles as well. It was decided this plant would be great for ethanol, land was taken,I think in this sugar deal, but it never went anywhere and the company left before it got around to improving the area infrastructure. US agrisol website says they have no intention of making ethanol at least for a long time because food is critical. On the other hand, in one article this plant was mentioned as one of the crops they will grow. And in all this is John Deere and Monsanto to help that access to new equipment, wonder how they will teach farmers to deal with tractors and such, seems time consuming particularly since there is no mention of actually giving the equipment to the farmers.
Ok, returning to my last days in Tanzania tomorrow.
Suff on Simba, now in charge of Agrisol Tanzania, and fraud. I think the sugar deal that is mentioned here was another land grab in the northeast where sugar plantations were to be used for ethanol. There is also a plant, mentioned in the agrisol articles as well. It was decided this plant would be great for ethanol, land was taken,I think in this sugar deal, but it never went anywhere and the company left before it got around to improving the area infrastructure. US agrisol website says they have no intention of making ethanol at least for a long time because food is critical. On the other hand, in one article this plant was mentioned as one of the crops they will grow. And in all this is John Deere and Monsanto to help that access to new equipment, wonder how they will teach farmers to deal with tractors and such, seems time consuming particularly since there is no mention of actually giving the equipment to the farmers.
Ok, returning to my last days in Tanzania tomorrow.
