AgriSol Energy LLC
March 24, 2012
Hannah Furfaro
More than 70 Iowans called Saturday for the censure of Iowa Board of Regents’ president pro tem Bruce Rastetter for his role in a large-scale private agriculture deal in Tanzania at a community teach-in hosted by Occupy Ames and Occupy ISU at Ames City Hall.
March 20, 2012
Ahna Kruzic is a senior in sociology.
As of lately, an immense amount of controversy has surrounded the involvement of several Iowa-based partners in a highly controversial and undeniably questionable investment deal in the African country of Tanzania.
Between April 1-4, 2012, hundreds of Sierra Leonean farmers, women, youth, landowners, and elders are coming together—in what will surely be a historic event—to challenge the impact of unbridled foreign land investment, commonly known as “land grabs,” in Sierra Leone.
Unfortunately, most of the participants have no resources to cover travel and other costs. To ensure that the poorest have a voice in decision making, the Oakland Institute has pledged to raise $10,000. Please help us make this...
February 16, 2012
The most controversial and potentially devastating part of the deal was the forceful removal of 162,000 people thriving on the land.
February 14, 2012
Feb. 14 (GIN) - An Iowa school has backed out of a project that was regarded as a massive land grab in Tanzania. Over 160,000 small farmers would have been evicted under the plan.
In its announcement on Feb. 10, Iowa State University said it was tired of defending its role in the African project and its partnership with AgriSol Energy, a U.S. company run by a major university donor.
February 12, 2012
In a turnabout that should remove AgriSol's last shred of credibility as a “responsible investor” in Tanzania, Iowa State University (ISU) announced in a statement on February 10, 2012 that they have withdrawn themselves entirely from ties to AgriSol and the land deal it is planning in Tanzania. From Dean Wintersteen’s statement we learned that the university is tired of spending “much of our time and energy...directed at countering misrepresentations about why and how we were involved.”
January 6, 2012
By Alan Guebert
It's hard to see Iowa State University's key role in a plan by one of its top officials to develop an 800,000-acre farm in Tanzania as anything other than institutional polish to a massive African land deal for politically connected financial titans.
January 1, 2012
By Gerald Kitabu
AgriSol’s planned investment project in Katumba and Mishamo refugee settlements in Mapnda district has suffered the first major big blow following Iowa State University (ISU)’s decision to scale back its involvement with AgriSol to an “advisory capacity,” The Guardian on Sunday has learnt.
December 30, 2011
By Rachel Cernansky
Trees ForTheFuture/CC BY 1.0--Tree-planting in Mayange Village near Kigoma, Tanzania, where thousands of people would be displaced—some of them refugees from Burundi with over 40 years of established lives, according to the Oakland Institute.
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