What do an American businessman, Iowa State University and 162,000 refugees in Tanzania have in common?

Answer: they are all either directly involved in or soon-to-be impacted by a small group of U.S. investors’ plans to acquire 800,000 acres (1,250 square miles) of land in Tanzania and transform it into large-scale industrial crop, beef and agrofuel production. They plan to use genetically engineered (GE) seed and other inputs supplied by Monsanto, Syngenta and other global agribusinesses.

As you might guess, not everyone is going to benefit from this mega-project! The deal, if it goes through, would force 162,000 former refugees from Burundi off land they have tended for the past 40 years, destroying their livelihoods and the communities they have built to give their children a future.

Follow the money (sigh, yes — again)

So who wins? The Tanzanian government might make a few dollars off the deal, but it won’t be much, once negotiations over a suite of investor incentives (tax holidays, duty waivers, and relaxed rules for repatriation of dollars out of Tanzania) are concluded. The three biggest winners would be Iowa-based AgriSol Energy,Summit Group (a large-scale farming and livestock operation headquartered in Alden, Iowa) and Pharos Global Agriculture Fund. Iowa State University is also a key supporter of the project.

These three private entities stand to gain the most, not only by ramping up lucrative agrofuel production for export, but even more significantly, by requiring — as a condition of the deal — that the Tanzanian government overturn its current prohibition of genetically engineered crops. They are demanding creation of a regulatory framework that allows importation and cultivation of GE crops in that country. 

Rewriting Southern countries’ biosafety legislation in order to start flooding the region with exports of U.S. GE crops has long been a tactic of the U.S. State Department and Agency for International Development (USAID). And it’s no coincidence that the Obama administration’s Feed the Future initiative targets Tanzania for “agricultural development” based on public-private partnerships and transgenic biotechnology.

The deal requires the Tanzanian government to overturn its current prohibition of GE crops

And who loses? Obviously, the Burundi people who are getting kicked off the land. But the threats go well beyond the 800,000 acres and 162,000 people in question there. Tanzanian farmers, consumers, their agricultural markets and biodiversity are all at risk.

Until recently, Tanzanians were somewhat protected from the intrusion of transgenic crops by the country’s placement of the precautionary principle at the center of its biosafety legislation. That has shifted, as under intense industry pressure, the government has relaxed its laws and allowed research and field trials of GE corn and cassava, with GE cotton around the corner. The last legal protections against GE crops could fall, if the AgriSol land grab is able to effectively rewrite Tanzania’s biosafety laws. And this is why Tanzanians have formed an alliance to fight back.

Here in the U.S. the Oakland Institute is leading the charge to expose and block the Tanzanian land grab and is calling on concerned individuals to take action and urge the wealthy Iowa investor Bruce Rastetter (who is simultaneously CEO of Pharos Ag and Summit Farms as well as Managing Director of AgriSol Energy) and the Prime Minister of Tanzania to drop the project. Joining the call, the Sierra Club has brought the voices of its one million members to bear, sending its own letter urging Rastetter and the Prime Minister to abandon “this ill-advised project.” It's easy to follow Oakland Institute's lead by sending a letter of your own.

Global policy stalled

The Tanzanian case is one of many such land grabs — more formally described as large-scale land acquisitions — that have been sweeping across the Global South in recent years. The epidemic reached such disastrous proportions, with such gross violations of human rights, that the United Nations finally turned its attention to the issue and began in 2008 to draft “voluntary guidelines” to protect communities from the harmful effects.

Earlier this month, 800 farmers’ rights, environment and development groups joined victims of land grabs inpetitioning the Chair of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization’s Committee on Food Security to swiftly finalize the guidelines. Governments meeting in Rome were to adopt the voluntary guidelines by October 17, but failed to do so.

The U.N. body came close to approving the guidelines, explained U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier de Schutter, but foundered over the specific provisions affecting large-scale investments in farmland. The Committee on Food Security will meet again in early 2012 and de Schutter expects that the guidelines could be ratified later in the year. Civil society groups and farmers’ coalitions like La Via Campesina continue to play a critical role in these negotiations, pressing for strong and enforceable language.

Stand with Tanzania

While adoption of the voluntary guidelines in 2012 is urgently needed, every additional week of delay puts hundreds of thousands of farmers’ livelihoods at risk.

Take Action » Join Oakland Institute’s campaign to block the Tanzanian land grab. Send a letter to AgriSol’s Bruce Rastetter and the Tanzanian Prime Minister urging them to abandon the land deal.

Je, mfanyabiashara wa Marekani, Iowa State University na wakimbizi 162,000 katika Tanzania nao?

Jibu: wote ni ama moja kwa moja kushiriki katika au mara-kwa-kuwa wanashikiliwa na kikundi kidogo cha mipango ya Marekani wawekezaji kupata ekari 800,000 (maili za mraba 1250) wa nchi katika Tanzania na kubadilisha ndani ya nyama makubwa ya viwanda mazao, na agrofuel uzalishaji. Wanapanga kutumia teknolojia ya jenetiki (GE) ya mbegu na pembejeo nyingine hutolewa na Monsanto, Syngenta na nyingine za kilimo cha biashara ya kimataifa.

Kama unaweza nadhani, si kila mtu ni kwenda kufaidika na mradi huu mega-! mpango huo, kama unaendelea kwa njia, bila nguvu ya wakimbizi 162,000 kutoka Burundi wa zamani mbali ya nchi wana wakijifanya kwa kipindi cha miaka 40, na kuharibu maisha yao na jamii wao wamejenga kuwapa watoto yao ya baadaye.

Kufuata fedha (sigh, ndiyo - tena)

Kwa hiyo nani mafanikio ya serikali ya Tanzania inaweza kufanya dola chache mbali mpango huo?, Lakini si kuwa na kiasi, mara moja mazungumzo juu ya Suite ya motisha mwekezaji (kodi ya likizo, waivers wajibu, na sheria walishirikiana kwa ajili ya kuwarejesha makwao ya dola nje ya Tanzania) ni alihitimisha. tatu kubwa washindi itakuwa Iowa makao AgriSol Nishati , Mkutano Group (kilimo kwa kiasi kikubwa na uendeshaji wa mifugo makao yake makuu katika Alden, Iowa) na Mfuko wa Pharos Global Kilimo . Chuo Kikuu cha Jimbo Iowa pia ni msaidizi muhimu wa mradi huo.

Hawa watatu vyombo binafsi kusimama kwa faida nyingi, si tu kwa faida kubwa agrofuel ramping juu ya uzalishaji kwa mauzo ya nje, lakini hata zaidi kwa kiasi kikubwa, na iliwataka - kama masharti ya mpango huo - kwamba serikali ya Tanzania kugeuza makatazo yake ya sasa ya mazao ya jenetiki. Wao wanadai kuundwa kwa mfumo wa udhibiti ambayo inaruhusu uagizaji na kilimo cha mazao ya GE nchini humo.

Kuandika Kusini mwa nchi usalama wa viumbe na sheria ili kuanzisha mafuriko mkoa na mauzo ya mazao ya GE ya Marekani kwa muda mrefu imekuwa mbinu ya Marekani Idara na Wakala wa Maendeleo ya Kimataifa (USAID). Na kwa bahati mbaya kuwa utawala wa Obama wa Feed Future mpango malengo ya Tanzania kwa ajili ya "maendeleo ya kilimo" kutokana na ushirikiano wa umma na binafsi na teknolojia transgenic.

mpango wa serikali ya Tanzania inahitaji kugeuza makatazo yake ya sasa ya mazao ya GE

Na ambaye alipoteza wazi?, Watu Burundi ambao ni kupata mateke mbali ya nchi. Lakini vitisho kwenda vizuri zaidi ya ekari 800,000 na watu 162,000 katika swali huko. Tanzania, kwa walaji, masoko yao ya kilimo na viumbe hai wote katika hatari.

Hadi hivi karibuni, Watanzania walikuwa kidogo ya kulindwa kutokana na uingizaji wa mazao ya transgenic na uwekaji wa nchi hiyo wa kanuni za tahadhari katika kituo cha sheria ya usalama wa viumbe wake. Hiyo ina kubadilishwa, kama chini ya shinikizo kubwa viwanda, serikali ina sheria zake walishirikiana na kuruhusiwa majaribio ya utafiti na uwanja wa GE mahindi na mihogo, pamba na GE kuzunguka kona. mwisho kisheria ulinzi dhidi ya mazao ya GE inaweza kuanguka, ikiwa ni kunyakua ardhi AgriSol ufanisi na uwezo wa kuandika upya sheria ya usalama wa viumbe na Tanzania. Na hii ni kwa nini Watanzania kuwa na sumu muungano wa kupambana na nyuma.

Hapa nchini Marekani Taasisi ya Oakland ni kuongoza malipo kwa nje na kuzuia kunyakua ardhi ya Tanzania na ni wito kwa watu binafsi wanaohusika kuchukua hatua na kuwaomba matajiri Iowa mwekezaji Bruce Rastetter (ambaye wakati huo huo Mkurugenzi Mtendaji wa Pharos Ag na mashamba pamoja na Mkutano Mkurugenzi Mtendaji wa AgriSol Nishati) na Waziri Mkuu wa Tanzania kushuka mradi. Kujiunga na simu, Sierra Club umeleta sauti ya wanachama wake milioni moja kubeba, kutuma yake mwenyewe barua akiwataka Rastetter na Waziri Mkuu kuachana na "mradi huu mgonjwa alimshauri." Ni rahisi kufuata kuongoza Taasisi ya Oakland kwa kutuma barua yako mwenyewe.

Sera za kimataifa kushindikana

Kesi ya Tanzania ni moja ya mengi ya namna hiyo grabs nchi - kama ilivyoelezwa rasmi zaidi ununuzi wa ardhi kwa kiasi kikubwa - ambayo yamekuwa yanayojitokeza katika Global Kusini katika miaka ya karibuni. janga hili lilifikia ukubwa kiasi maafa, na ukiukwaji huo mkubwa wa haki za binadamu, kwamba Umoja wa Mataifa hatimaye akageuka tahadhari yake kwa suala hilo na kuanza mwaka 2008 hadi rasimu ya " miongozo ya hiari "kulinda jamii kutokana na athari zinazodhuru.

Mapema...