By: Anuradha Mittal<\/p>\n
Is the 2015 \u201cIowa Agriculture Summit\u201d really a bi-partisan forum to promote agriculture, or yet another scheme devised by multi-millionaire Iowan Bruce Rastetter to hijack issues impacting farmers and agriculture for his self-serving political and economic agenda?<\/p>\n
[…]<\/p>\n
In 2011, Bruce Rastetter, as the CEO of AgriSol, acquired over 800,000 acres of land \u2013 supposedly three \u201cabandoned refugee camps\u201d \u2013 to set up an agriculture enterprise in Tanzania with plans for industrial-scale crop cultivation, livestock, and agrofuel production. The deal was negotiated with top Tanzanian leadership, including the Prime Minister of Tanzania.<\/p>\n
With promises of wealth and development, the deal required changes in Tanzania\u2019s regulations on cultivation of GM crops; \u201cStrategic Investor Status\u201d granting financial incentives; reduction in profit taxes; and for the construction of rail infrastructure.<\/p>\n
But most egregious was the fact, as exposed by the Oakland Institute, that the project would have displaced over 162,000 small-holder farmers \u2014 Burundian refugees who had made that land their home for over 40 years. The Tanzanian government was promising citizenship to these refugees, contingent on them abandoning their homes and livelihoods so Rastetter could take over their lands, all for the unbelievable price of around 22-23 cents\/acre.<\/p>\n