List of Control Mechanisms- A Truly Long List

 

Agencies, Rules and Regulations (called Regs) – often called a bureau in a bureaucracy, an agency is a division of the Executive Branch that wields the power of law in control. There exist over 112 unconstitutional agencies. They are also called politbureaus, a reference to its cousin in communism. Many unconstitutional rules and regs have the force and effect of law. See WHY REGULATIONS HARM FAMILIES. Also see KBD, Limited Federal Government and Constitution Trumps Treaties.

AHRI – American Heritage Rivers Initiative. see Water

Air – Controlling of the air we breath is included in Weapons under BioChem and ChemTrails.

Aliens – see UFO. Facts are now proven.

Assassination – see Killers. There exists a trail of suspicious, unsolved murders from the Clinton Whitehouse all the way back into Arkansas. Those presidents who opposed the Fed were assassination. Any connection?

ARDA – Advanced Research and Development Activity. See Spooks and Snoops.

Audits – truth and operations can be concealed from the taxpayer by altering budgets and audits.

Bank List – See Money.

BATF – Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms – an unconstitutional bureau. See Agencies

BBK- BBKs – Brain and Body Killers. My name for dope. Drugs are useful medicines doctors prescribe.

Biospheres – see UN List. Also see Water for that control.

Border Patrol and Immigration and Naturalization Service – see Immigration

Bill of Rights – Our rights are being eroded at an increasing pace.

BioChem Warfare List (More to follow). Also BioChem Weapons.

Borders – are lax border patrols a ploy? see Immigration. We are being overun and destroyed from within.

BLM – Bureau of Land Management. See Environment.

BSA – Bank Secrecy Act. See Money

Bureau, Bureaucracy – see Agency

CAFR – Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. Our governments are keeping two sets of books and hiding trillions of dollars while increasing taxes.

CAFRA – Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act, HR 1965

CALEA List –

Camps – see Prison Camps

CARA List – Conservation and Reinvestment Act. This is a confiscation of shooting places.

Carnivore List – reads our email.

CDC – Centers for Disease Control. See Medical Issues

Census – Federal law limits questions, but the Commerce Department can’t read.

CERP – Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan. Is flooding farmers off their land. Also see Water.

ChemTrail List – Spraying deadly stuff on us at our expense. Not very nice people in WnDC. Clinton is out and Bush is in. I had hoped that would end that dratted spraying. But white spider webs are now falling south of Saco (Sacramento), CA. This has to be too much of a bad thing. Time to do something.

Chinagate – see Cox Report. Also see Security, National.

Chip – Implants, Microchips, Digital Angel, Mark of the Beast – a tell-tale microchip inserted into your skin

CIA – This outfit has done some weird things under Clinton’s guidance. See Spooks and Snoops.

CIPA — Childrens Internet Protection Act. Requires Internet filters. SF library refused.

CIPA – Classified Information Procedures Act. Used to conceal details of the surveillance system.

Civil Rights – Freedom or Loss of Freedom — you decide. Also see Courts

Conservationalists, TNC, IUNC, Eco-wackos – see Environment.

Constitution, constitutionality, unconstitutionality – pertaining to the Constitution.

COPPA – Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. (See COPA.)

COPA – Child On line Protection Act. Attempt to censure the Internet.

COPS – Community Oriented Policing System.

COINTELPRO – Counterintelligence Operation. Is an old FBI anti-communism outfit. See Nat Hentoff’s Rescuing the Constitution.

Cost of Living – see Inflation. The populace is kept so busy and broke they have neither time nor money to fight the system.

Courts – Legal action may be a form of control. Judges shape the future with their interpretations. World Court is now a reality, but is being snubbed by President Bush 2. Also see Cost of Living. Liberty is discussed.

Covert Action – see Killers and Coverups

Coverups – see Killers and Coverups

Cox Report on Chinagate – The omission of this report in the Articles of Impeachment is an impeachable offense.

CBP – U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, the Border Patrol’s parent agency. see Immigration

Democracy – a form of government that feeds on itself, destroying itself from within. Like socialism, communism and fascism, democracy deteriorates into totalitarionism, which is a police state, which is a dictatorship. The Bejing government of Communist China is a perfect example. see Definitions.

DARPA – See Spooks and Snoops.

Debt – see Inflation

Definitions – handy page of modern terms.

Diesel Fuel – see Energy

Digital Angel – see Chip

DOI – Department of the Interior is trying to get a bill passed to make them a national police force for lend.

Dope – See BBK. Dope is my name for illegal drugs. Also BBK – brain and body killer. The CIA has been the biggest crook. George Hansen stated that the CIA controlled over 70%.

DPPA – Driver’s Privacy Protection Act

Drugs – See BBK. I use the names BBKs and dope.

Education – In violation of the Constitution, federal gov’t is controlling the minds of our youth.

Watch Goals 2000, STW, Workforce Investment Act (Careers Act), OBE etc. Names change frequently.

Echelon – super powerful world wide snoop system under NSA.

Ecology, ecologists, environment, environmentalists, eco-wackos, land seizure – see Environment.

Education and Schools – By controlling education, politicians control the minds.

Congress and the President are forbidden by the Constitution from touching anything about schools and education, but they continue to meddle. Goals 2000 List and STW are major factors, unconstitutional as possible, but still existing.

Also see Mind Control

EEOC – U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The bums are now telling you what to do.

EHPA – Model State Emergency Health Powers Act. See See Medical Issues

EL – Executive Law. The list includes EOs, PDDs and all laws created by the President. Very unconstitutional. They are in the FEMA List. Also read CO6 for a list and explanation of the many names for the same type of unconstitutional laws created by presidents. President Hoover set the precendent that really got that trick rolling, and FDR ran it to the hilt. Clinton tried to catch up. Also see Security, National.

Elections – See Immigration. Voter fraud is in the millions in California alone. [fron 259]

Electricity – see Energy

ELSUR – Electronic Surveillance; refers to telephone wiretaps, hidden microphones, cameras placed in private areas, and other forms of surreptitious interception of oral, written or electronic communication. Made legal (?) by USA Patriot Act and Homeland Security. The FBI and CIA are drowning in collected info as of 2-24-04. See Spooks.

Enemy Upkeep – Preservation of an Enemy to organize public support for wars. Do everything but kill their leader. He is needed for a scapegoat. CIA was great at creating mental monsters. Osama bin Laden is one that created itself, possibly. It is difficult to overlook the fact that for 50 or so years our government stops just short of capturing the enemy leader. Also see Presidents; Spooks.

Energy – A serious control mechanism. . Also see About Yucca in the Environment List for eco-wacko controls.

English Language – American nationalism requires a national language. See Language.

Enlibra List – Governors for government controlled environment. Watch this one closely. Also see Environment.

Environment, Control through our Environment, Conservation, Eco-wackos. Someone is taking our land and stopping our food production.

EO – Executive Order. See EL.

EPA – Environmental Protection Agency – see Environment. The EPA is ready to combat terrorism. That seems a bit far fetched.

ESA – Endangered Species Act; mutant child of the EPA, which see under Environment.

EWPA – Emergency and War Powers Act. See War.

Executive Order – see EL.

Executive power grab on tap at White House? Sarah Foster at WND; on Bush; great expose’.

Exile –

Farm Subsidies – see Food Control

Fast moving bills to watch – from Rense

Fast Track – giving the President the power of Congress. Very unconstitutional.

FATF – see UN List

FBI – Federal Bureau of Investigation. See Spooks and Snoops.

FCRA – Fair Credit Reporting Act

Federalism – means States Rights over Federal Government. This is a real sore point with big government.

FEMA List – Federal Emergency Management Agency. Could be become very powerful.

FIJA List – Fully Informed Jury Association. This is a plus.

FinCEN – Financial Crimes Enforcement Network; housed in the Treasury Department

FERPA List – Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

FISC – Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Works with FISA.

FISA List – Foreign Intelligence Surveillancey Act . Secret courts. Originated with Carter. Clinton added an EO. Power added through USA Patriot Act. Under that 1978 law, a secret U.S. court considers requests for searches or wiretaps, and these generally require a lower standard of proof for approval than in traditional criminal cases.

FLPMA – Federal Land Policy and Management Act. Related to Antquities Act. The procedure for granting rights-of-way across federal lands is specified.

Food Control – Klamath Basis Water Crisis, Terminator Crops, Land Control, Farm Subsidies. Also see Water.

Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act – see FISA.

Forest thinning to prevent forest fires. Al Gore and his eco-wackos have caused loss of millions of acres of timber. See Environment. Bush 2 is attempting to solve this problem.

Forfeiture – laws legalize theft by the cops

Fuel – see Energy

Garden Plot – see Operation Garden Plot – control of the civilian masses.

Gasoline – see Energy

GATT – General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Set up in 1946 to lend a predictable legal structure to international commerce. See Treaties.

GLBA – Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act – see Money

GOA – Gun Owners of America. see Guns. Join this good group. Boycott NRA who caved in to CARA. This is a plus.

Goals 2000 and STW – see Education and Schools

Guns – the last step before dictatorship. When we lose our guns, it’s all over, and we are almost there.

HAARP – the weapon from Tesla. Powerful rays are bounced off the ionosphere, returning to Earth with greatly magnified power. Weather modification is possible. Not much is seen in the media.

Hate Crimes – see Political Correctness

Heating Oil – see Energy

Hegelian Dialectic – The act of creating a problem, waiting for call for help with it, then fixing it by adding one more control mechanism on the people. It is comprised of three parts: thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. Credit for isolating this control mechanism is given to Hegel. It has been in use for centuries. The terrorists are a perfect example. The federal government has allowed nearly everyone and anyone to walk across our borders. Estimates of terrorists in America are large. The Border Patrol and the INS are a joke. So now the federal government is fixing the problem by placing controls on the good American citizens through the USA Patriot and the Homeland Security laws. Both violate the Constitution grossly, but that does not seem to concern the President and Congress anymore. But no noticeable change has occurred with the Border Patrol and the INS. For at excellent discussion of the Hegelian Dialectic in use today, read Charlotte Iserbyte.

Hitler List – I have been watching Hitler history appear before my very eyes these past few years.

Homeland Security – see Office of Homeland Security

ICC – International Criminal Court. Gets power from a UN Treaty. Very dangerous.

Identity Theft – California Senate Bill 168 – SSN in California, pending in US

IMF – International Monety Fund. They give money to other nations. US is the biggest contributor. That’s you tax dollars, Folks. See Money. Also see TRANSFERRING AMERICAN WEALTH.

Immigration – The population of American citizens is stable. All increase is due to immigrants, which is in the millions. Are we being overtaken from within? Also see Voter Fraud.

INS – Immigration and Naturalization Service. The Constitution directs the federal government to protect our borders. As of 2002 they are a joke. So is the Border Patrol.

Pat Buchanan, in his book, Death of the West, predicts that the the US will be a 3rd world nation by 2050 from exploding populations other than America.

Language – Voting information was available in four languages in California in 2002. What happened to the requirement to speak and write English for citizenship?

Implants – see Chip

Income Tax, IRS — see Tax Control . Also see Inflation.

Indians, American, List

Inflation and Cost of Living – the controlled inflation rate of 5% is taking America to extinction.

Information Control – see Media and Information Control

INS – see Immigration

Insane Asylums – see Mind Control, a weapon used by FDR and away from the courts.

IUNC – International Union of Nature Conservatives. See Ecology.

Killers, Coverups and Assassinations – Politicians that cause their competition to disappear and stay disappeared. Assassinations are included in this list.

KYC – Know Your Customer – see Money

Land Control through use, ESA, EPA, Treaties, unconstitutional BLM actions

Language – What is our American language? More diversion here. Orange County city leads nation with non-English speakers

Lantern – see Magic Lantern in USA Patriot Act

Legal Process – see Courts.

MACDIS – see FRON Terror Index

MAI – Multilateral Agreement on Investments. “Trade Agreement from Hell”. Operates in conjunction with NAFTA.

Martial Law List – FISA, CALEA; Or read this for Congress’s intention

Maritime Heritage Act –

Mark of the Beast – see Chip

Media and Information Control – The mainstream media is owned and controlled by the IBLs. Bush has ordered “sensitive but unclassified” information removed immediately from government web sites.

Medical Issues, Medicine, Disease and Vaccination – Government wants power to dictate what goes in your body.

Microchips – see Chip

MEGIDDO – FBI’S PROJECT MEGIDDO – see Spooks and Snoops

Memory – see Mind Control; Scientists have determined that false memories can be planted in people’s minds.

Mental Institutions – see Mind Control, a weapon used by FDR and researched extensively since then. New development in court actions.

Military Operations on Urbanized Terrain – see MOUT

Mind Control – Used by FDR, there abounds much research and speculation on this subject.

Money – Economic control through issuance and control of money; Banks, BSA, NYC, SAR

MOUT – see SWAT Teams under War/Military

MSA – Medical Savings Account – See Patients Bill of Rights under Medical Issues

Multilateral Agreement on Investments – see MAI

National Debt – see Tax Control and Inflation. We are being taxed out of existance while one dime of income tax goes to reduce the national debt. Inflation from our Debt Money System is driving America to extinction.

National Emergency Status – see NES

National Homeland Security Agency – another step toward a police state by Bush.

Also see Office of Homeland Security and FEMA.

National ID List. Also see Chip

NES – National Security Status. See FRON Terror Index

NSC – National Safety Council – a large, special interest financed, non-governmental organization (NGO). The Council was chartered by an ill-advised Act of Congress on August 13, 1953 and is incorporated under federal law. Their charter mandates that the National Safety Council be nonpolitical and not contribute to or otherwise assist any political party or candidate. They do, however, support strong people controls by any means necessary. See Agencies.

National Security – see Security, National

National Security Directive – NSD – see EL.

NEDSS – National Emergency Disease Surveillance System – see Medical

NEPA – National Environmental Policy Act. China coal figured in on this.

NICS – National Instant Check System. See Guns

NGA – National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. In the name of Homeland Security, it is spying on America using some of the country’s most sophisticated aerial imaging equipment. It is part of the Defense Department.

NPS – National Park Service. Unconstitutional.

NRA – National Rifle Association – supported Clinton – see Guns. NRA caved into CARA. Join GOA instead.

NSA – National Security Agency. Controls Echelon, the global snoop machine. See Spooks and Snoops.

NSD – National Security Directive – see EL.

Office of Homeland Security – This one came after the terrorists plane-bombed the NY City towers. Also see USA Patriot Act.

Oil – see Energy

Operation Garden Plot – read what our dedicated public servants have planned for us.

OSHA – The Constitution prohibits the federal government from meddling with this issue.

Panama Canal – a serious breach in our Security, National, which see.

Patient’s Bill of Rights – see Medical Issues

Patriot Act – see USA Patriot Act

PDD – Presidential Decision Directive – see EL.

Pension – More money control; threats to stop paying Social Security; raiding pension funds

Pittman-Robertson Act – goes with CARA

Political Correctness and Hate Crime Laws – an old Commie Goal that may be complete.

Polls – see Surveys and Polls.

Posse Comitatus – This law and concept prevents the US military from fighting American civilians, a plus.

Power – see Energy

Powder Keg List – Explosive items of controls buried deep inside huge bills that Congress doesn’t even read.

Power Grab List

Presidential Decision Directive – PDD – see EL.

President List – list of presidents and their accomplishments at destroying our Constitution and our Constitutional Republic. A pattern is evolving. Also see EnemyUpkeep.

Prison Camps – You should be aware

Retirement – see Pension

REX ; also see Spooks

Rules and Regulations – see Agencies

SAR – Suspicious Activity Report in banking law. See Money.

Security, National – Read about the threat resulting from the loss of our Panama Canal.

Co-President Clinton sold our secrets to the enemy.
Government keeps secrets from us people concerning controlling us.
There is something wrong with this picure.

Smallpox – see Medical Issues

Social Security – see Pension

Spooks and Snoops – CIA, FBI, ad nauseam. Once an honorable institution, under Clinton the FBI discredited itself with such acts as “testilying” and false lab test reports. Megiddo Report.

States Rights – see Federalism

STOA – Scientific and Technological Options Assessment; Political control with nasty weapons;

also see FRON INDEX

STW – Sys List – School to Work. Part of the Socialist attack. Related to Goals 2000. See Education and Schools.

Surveys and Polls – very scientifically controlled. They have the answer before they start. Then they gather “documentation”.

Tax Control through the IRS. Two-thirds of the IRS income tax is wasted and lost. The remaining one-third goes to private bankers for interest only on the exponentially escalating national debt. Click on Grace Commission for more. Also see Inflation.

Terrorists – Also, take your pick from the stuff on this page. Control is the most serious development.

TNC – The Nature Conservancy. See Environment. This is a bad one that needs watching.

Treaty Power – used by Congress to sidestep the Constitution, a most unethical and unconstitutional maneuver.

UFO – Aliens and UFOs are a proven reality that government refuses to admit.

Unconstitutional – violating the Constitution.

UN LIST – Same as NWO (New World Order)

FATF – Financial Action Task Force; a UN outfit that is exerting control over Americans.

Topics has some good info.

NGO -Non Government Organization.

WEU – Western European Union, still powerful after 45 years; is with UN

WTO – World Trade Organization, wants IMF to ease payments. Money controls.

WTO List

U.S.A. Patriot Act of 2001 – Bush’s new power search law. Bye-bye 4th Amendment. Also see Homeland Security and War.

Vaccinations – see Medical Issues

Voter Fraud – runs into the millions in California alone. See Elections. Also see Immigration.

War and Military Lists

Air – Controlling of the air we breath is included in Weapons under BioChem and ChemTrails.

EWPA – Emergency and War Powers Act. Gives president dictatorial powers. We have been under national emergency rule since FDR. Bush2 is continuing the presidential power grab to wage undeclared war; Article in WnPost.

Military List
SWAT Teams – MOUT – Army training manual; Assault Teams , Compared to Russia

Unfinished Wars – The wars following WW2 have never been consumated. No ruler has been captured until Sadam, finally. Bin Laden may follow soon. See Military List, President List and Time Line.

War and Emergency Powers Act – HU 92; FEMA; agency defined; Hitler power
Weapons – Horribly weapons for control of the masses continue to be developed.

Also see the Spooks List.

Water, Drinking, Control – AHRI has given control of many of our rivers to the UN.

Weapons – see War

Wildlands Project – see Land Control

Wire Tapping List – see USA Patriot Act and Office of Homeland Security.

More Control Stuff

IBLs Rule the World – A startling statement that backs up uhuh and Forest Glen Durland.

Fire On Civilians – 1 – Weapons of Horror OUR military has waiting for us.

Fire On Civilians – 2 – Will Americans Fire On Americans? UN control is here.

Food Is Power. Control Is Imminent. Sterile seeds.

Government Assault on Free Speech! Scroll down to title. Great collection by FreeRepublic

Killer Crops. Seeds are now LEASED to farmers. The plants produce NO seeds.

Land Mine Legislation – Claire Wolfe demonstrates how Clinton hides his nasty bills in other legislation. Has Bush removed any?

Madsen has an impressive site on camps. It takes a while for it to materialize, but it is worth the wait. Scroll down to camps.

Operation Garden Plot – Laws OUR Congress has passed to control us. Thanks a lot, you Guys.

Posse Comitatus. Disagreement is the Enemy in California. Also see Cryptome (Run a search for posse.)

Resolve – My determination is set, as that of our Forefathers.

Questionaire – Would you fire on Americans?

UN is Taking our Drinking Water. Also see AHRI.

Unseen Enemy is nearly ready to tighten its death grip.

 

Jatropha biofuels: UK investors sell controversial crop as 'green'

 

UK fund managers are selling investments in jatropha plantations as a wallet-swelling, planet-saving financial bonanza. But the reality for poor farmers is very different. Andrew Wasley reports

A number of UK-based investment companies are marketing a controversial biofuel crop as an ‘ethical investment’ despite it being linked to conflicts over land, food security and growing hunger in developing countries, the Ecologist has learned.

Onyx World, BluSky Investments, Viceroy Invest and Sustain Investments have been criticised by environmental and anti-poverty campaigners for selling investments in jatropha because of increasing concerns over the crop’s impact on poor communities.

Jatropha, a bushy shrub which grows in Africa, Latin America and south-east Asia, is being touted as a ‘miracle’ biofuel because the plants’ seeds contain a potentially valuable, non-edible, vegetable oil that can be used for biodiesel.

The investment companies are selling jatropha as the new ‘green oil’ and claim it has the potential to alleviate poverty and improve livelihoods in developing countries. One of the plants’ biggest benefits, the companies claim, is that it thrives on low grade, marginal land, and in semi-arid areas with poor soils, thus not competing with food production.

But, according to campaigners, the supposed benefits of jatropha are largely unproven, and the experiences of many farmers encouraged to plant the crop do not tally with the claims of the biofuel industry or its investors. Yields have fallen short of predictions, say farmers, and good agricultural land has been given over to jatropha, threatening food security. Promised incomes have also failed to materialise, it is claimed, because of poor demand for jatropha seeds.

Get rich and save the planet

Onyx World Ltd, based in Colchester, offers investors returns of up to 29 per cent annually if they buy into jatropha. The company’s investment brochure, titled ‘Money really does grow on trees’, claims that jatropha benefits local communities by improving farming practices, stimulating local economies, preserving family units and allowing the use of marginal land.

The environment benefits, Onyx World claims, because jatropha is a carbon neutral fuel source, a replacement for fossil fuels, reduces global warming and does not displace food crops.

Sustain Investments and BluSky make similar claims. Viceroy Invest says investors will be ‘helping to eradicate third world poverty and creating employment, whilst also saving the planet from greenhouse gases’.

The Ecologist’s findings come as a new report by ActionAid links the expansion of industrial biofuels, derived from crops including jatropha, palm oil, soya and sugar cane, to rising food prices and increasing global hunger.

Meredith Alexander, head of trade and corporates at ActionAid, told the Ecologist: ‘ActionAid deals with the harsh realities of a billion people going hungry now and the threat that climate change will make matters even worse. Like snake oil salesmen of old, propagandists for jatropha oil have a list of miraculous claims a mile long, but no matter what they say, jatropha is not a solution to climate change and actually makes hunger worse.’

Friends of the Earth’s Kenneth Richter, said: ‘The positive spin about jatropha made by investment companies doesn’t marry up with the experiences of farmers growing the crop. This so-called biofuel wonder crop is failing farmers and failing the environment. Companies should stop investing in jatropha until they have properly assessed its social and environmental impact.’

Almuth Ernsting, from Biofuel Watch, said that the claims made by the investment companies were ‘highly dubious’ and conflicted with evidence collated by NGOs.

Displacing food crops

Although there is no suggestion the investment companies are directly involved in bad practice or wrongdoing, campaigners say the speedy and unregulated nature of the ‘jatropha rush’ raises doubts that that the crop is being grown in a sustainable or ethical manner.

ActionAid says that in Tanzania the crop is being targeted at areas with good rainfall, fertile soils and well developed infrastructure – ideal locations for food cultivation – rather than marginal land.
In Senegal and Swaziland the group says evidence suggests the plant will only survive with irrigation systems, contradicting industry claims that jatropha grows well with limited water usage. A Friends of the Earth investigation in Swaziland raised similar concerns about jatropha’s apparent ability to grow on land with poor soil and without regular watering.

The Friends of the Earth study also highlighted allegations that farmers were encouraged to sign contracts they did not properly understand, and which couldn’t be terminated for several years, locking the contractor into jatropha production regardless of the crop’s productivity.

Charities say food security in many parts of Africa is being compromised because land for food is being used for crops destined for biofuels, and that this is linked to local rises in food prices:

‘I and the community expected to increase our cash income and revenues by working on the plantation,’ Mamadou Bah, a farmer from Senegal, told ActionAid researchers. ‘Our food is insufficient because we gave away our land. We have to fight for our rights and find alternatives to fill the gap in food and livelihoods.’

A similar story was uncovered in Ghana, where shea trees, traditionally used to make shea butter that is used in cosmetics and soaps and for cooking, have been destroyed to plant jatropha.

‘The shea nuts I am able to pick during the year help me to have my children in school, to buy cloth and also to supplement the household’s food needs when the harvest from my husband’s farm runs out,’ Sanatu Yaw told researchers. ‘But this year I could not get much because of the trees that have been cut. Now they have destroyed the trees so we have lost a good source of income forever, yet we have not been paid anything in compensation.’

Uprooting jatropha plants

In Assam and Megahalaya in north-eastern India, where farmers have been encouraged to grow jatropha on a contract basis, many claim not to be receiving an adequate income, or no income at all – largely because of poor yields and a lack of demand for seeds:

‘Until now we have had no income from the jatropha plantation,’ farmer Parindra Gohain said. ‘They told me it would be two years before we would have income, but it is already three years. People are a little down now because the whole project is already four years running and there is no income. I still hope that I will get profit otherwise I will pull up the plants.’

Raju Sona, another farmer said: ‘No one will buy jatropha. People said if you have a plantation then surely you have a good market, but we didn’t see such good market. When I got the message that there was no market, I got discouraged….I felt very bad. I expected profit. I threw [the seeds] away. They were no use to me. I destroyed the plants because of lack of market. The thing is that we have land, but if I use it for jatropha and I don’t get good production after spending money, it will be a great loss for me.’

The Indian government plans to cultivate jatropha on millions of hectares of land as part of its intensive drive to generate energy. Critics say efforts should be focussed on tackling the country’s chronic hunger problem.

Early claims misleading

Onyx World and Viceroy Invest are both agents for Carbon Credited Farming (CCF) Plc, a London-based company specialising in developing renewable fuel and energy sources.

Although its focus is currently on jatropha, CCF has global interests in genetics, forestry, fertiliser and pesticides. The company says it is currently in the process of securing 70 years of genetics for oil palm which will increase the yields from most Asian oil palm plantations.

CCF states it is committed to best practices in its farming operations, engages in holistic agricultural techniques and permaculture, and is working to develop not-for-profit and charitable giving programmes.

Jeff Reeves, of CCF’s global operations team, said that the company was aware of the criticisms of biofuels, including jatropha, and acknowledged that there have been problems associated with the crop in a number of regions, including India and several African nations.

He cited land evictions in India and people being forced to grow jatropha in Burma as particularly problematic.

‘In many cases it is government policy and people that are to blame, rather than jatropha itself,’ he told the Ecologist. ‘Well managed, jatropha and other biofuel crops can work, but there has been countries where [poor management] has meant this is not the case.’

Reeves said that misleading claims about jatropha, made following early trials and describing it as a ‘wonderweed…. able to grow in deserts’, were to blame for a lot of the hostility the crop is now facing.

He said he would examine some of the claims being made by investment companies offering jatropha cultivated by CCF.

Onyx World referred the Ecologist’s enquiries to CCF. Viceroy Invest, Sustain Investments and BluSky declined to comment.

Some names have been changed. Andrew Wasley is a journalist with investigative agency Ecostorm

Read an article by ActionAid’s Meredith Alexander, ‘Jatropha is no miracle plant for hungry farmers’ here

Onyx World has informed us that the company ceased to offer 90 per cent returns on jatropha investments in September 2009. This article was updated on 29th March, 2010, to reflect this.

 

Jatropha biofuels: the true cost to Tanzania

.Billed as wonder crop, the establishment of jatropha plantations on the ground in Tanzania has been far from successful, or, in some cases, ethical

Biofuel investment and production in Tanzania is a highly contentious issue.

Biofuel investors have been doing business in Tanzania since 2000, but business stepped up a gear after 2006. To date there are 17 investor companies here, from UK, Germany, Sweden, the Nederlands and America – a small number compared to those in Brazil and Indonesia, but a number with clear motives.

With over four million hectares requested by investors for biofuels (but only 650,000 hectares currently allocated), this is a sizeable potential earner for Tanzania.

Or is it? Much of the hype and excitement surrounding biofuels – and surrounding the oil seed crop jatropha in particular – seems to be coming from international consultants and investors. Ministers, farmers, politicians and NGOs who are based here are unanimous in one thing: scepticism. Dr Felician Kilahama, head of Tanzanian Beekeeping and Forestry, and part of the task force overseeing jatropha cultivation in Tanzania puts it succinctly: ‘How will jatropha benefit Tanzania? Well exactly. We have no answers. We want food first, not jatropha’.

Jo Anderson, a Tanzanian environmental consultant, feels similarly:
‘There’s a lot of theory about jatropha. Despite acres of scientific research, there’s no evidence of it working on a large scale at all. It’s driven by the industrialised countries and donors’ need to find potential fuel to mitigate against environmental problems: it’s sold as a plant that grows anywhere: on degraded land, as a hedgerow… Any poor farmer can just put it in, and get rich. But jatropha doesn’t grow on the commercial industrial scale needed to run biodiesel plants: the transaction costs of large scale don’t add up. On a small scale, say 500 villages, you could produce the oil for this village to cook on, but not enough to run it at the size the investors need.’

READ OUR EXCLUSIVE INVESTIGATION INTO THE UK FUND MANAGERS SELLING JATROPHA AS AN ETHICAL INVESTMENT

A crop of questions

The arguments around jatropha fall into several distinct categories. First the land-use debate: can it actually be grown on marginal land? Should valuable land be used for food, or fuel? And how should land be partitioned, both nationally and at village level? What about the water and forests on that land: how does one calculate their actual economic, social, cultural, ecological and projected value, and to whom? Locals or investors?

And then come questions of benefit: will Tanzania actually profit from biofuels – can we use biofuels here rather than simply export to Europe and the US?

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) claims that over 70 per cent of Tanzania is potentially available for agriculture, yet for this to be true valuable indigenous forest must be cut down. Dr Felician Kilahuma, Head of The Beekeeping and Forestry Ministry is worried: ‘Thus far villagers who are desperately poor have sold off land at way below its market value to biofuel investors without fully understanding or thinking it through – they are selling off valuable investments. Plus of course, in Rufigi [an area in Southern Tanzania], one of the 25 allocated global hotspots – an area of ‘outstanding natural biodiversity’ – 81,000 hectares were given over to [bioenergy company] SEKAB for biofuels. This is valuable forest, where the rare hardwoods African blackwood, and mpingo are grown.’

SEKAB was in the process of closing down its operations in Tanzania as this article was written and refused to comment: so far the future of this plantation is unclear.

Land clearances

The story is not an isolated case. A report published by WWF Tanzania in March 2009, ‘Biofuel Industry Study: An Assessment of the Current Situation’, includes a very long list of endemic animals and plants (including rare orchids and the rarest bush baby in the world – Galago rondoensis) on the the redlist living in areas where Dutch firm BioShape has plantations.

Land has been cleared there, admits BioShape, but not by burning, and the company says it has paid compensation. Opponents say the land was not gained legally, and that it makes no sense to counter climate change through deforestation. The Makonde carvers flourish in this area, and the hardwoods are used to make woodwind instruments. And, as Fred Nelson, of the NGO Tanzania Natural Resources Forum points out, ‘The World Bank says managed forests can potentially earn $25-$50 a month for villagers, from medicinal products, food, charcoal… we don’t know what jatropha can earn for people yet’.

Mark Baker, of EI consultants based in Tanzania, is less equivocal:
‘Recently, in Kilwa, the Dutch firm BioShape rejected land that is labelled barren, or idle, in favour of fertile forest, the Namatimbile, the largest coastal forest in East Africa. Why did they do that if jatropha can grow on weak land? And anyway, what exactly is ‘barren’ land if it is being used extensively by pastoralists?’

Like SEKAB, BioShape said that it has now completely ceased operations in Tanzania, for reasons that are unclear. No-one from the company was prepared to comment on its activities.

Not indigenous

SEKAB and Bioshape are not alone: of the nine other major jatropha investors in Tanzania, 90 per cent are using at least some land that is not considered ‘marginal’, according to WWF.

A key question is whether jatropha really is as hardy and durable as its supporters claim. Geoffrey Howard, of the International Union of Conservation of Nature in Kenya says: ‘Because jatropha is used locally on graves by East Africans we assume it’s indigenous. It’s not. Jatopha is essentially an invasive species. It is thirsty, needs irrigation and in no studies has it met the expectations of projected yields, either in terms of fruit, or oil produced.’

Jam tomorrow

Perhaps the least investigated side of the jatropha debate is the social and economic implications. It is hard for most people in the industrialised world to imagine the level of desperation that many Tanzanians experience. In the Rufigi Delta, where Swedish firm SEKAB has recently halted its work with jatropha, locals look set to be bitterly disappointed.

Mohamed Osman Makaui, a resident of Nyamage village in Rufigi, who was unaware the project had completely stopped, told me: ‘Overall my expectations for the future of the village are good and I am hopeful about the presence of the [biofuel] company here. If the company sticks to what they have agreed in their discussions with us, the income of our village will grow and everyone will benefit from their presence.’

According to WWF’s report, no compensation had been paid for land at the time of publication in March 2009, and no jobs created. The campaign group also alleged that glaring holes exist where labour relations, child labour and health and safety considerations should be; though Tanzanian law states these are necessary preconditions for investors, in practice they can’t enforce these practices. At the time, SEKAB told WWF that it was still waiting for the land deeds, and that compensation will be paid when these are received. Now that the company has ceased operations in Tanzania, the likelihood of compensation being paid is unknown.

In a damning Oxfam report, ‘Another Inconvenient Truth’, a subsidiary of British firm Sun Biofuels plc was criticised for telling the press it was awarding compensation of over $600,000 to villagers who allowed jatropha to be planted on their land, a figure that was later revealed to be twice the offered amount, and many times what actually seems to have been taken up by villagers who were uncertain on what to do with their claim forms.

In fact, WWF’s research suggests that even where land was purchased, over half the biofuel investors did not carry out Environmental Impact Assessments, and none consulted villagers or informed them of what they were doing, or offered villagers opportunities in farming management.

A way forward?

There is clearly a big need for thorough and comprehensive minimum standards for jatropha investors, both before they arrive in Tanzania, and once they are here.

Says Professor Pius Yanda at the Institute for Research on Environment at the University of Dar Es Salaam: ‘At the moment there is a complete freeze on jatropha investors, as we assess what our options are for jatropha. Minimum guidelines need to include clear definitions of no-go areas for investors, and a policy for jatropha use here in Tanzania, so we run our own cars, buses and factories on jatropha. At present Fairtrade International is researching jatropha as a fair trade product, we shall see.’

But jatropha could yet be produced in an equitable and sustainable way. On the ground in Tanzania, firms were distinctly cagey about agreeing to let the Ecologist look at their projects, but one notable exception was Diligent Energy Systems. After two years, this small Dutch company has signed up 5000 farmers to grow jatropha.

What makes Diligent so interesting is that it owns no land. Effectively it ‘outsources’ the growing: villagers get the economic benefits of money for seeds and cultivation. Secondary benefits include oil for cooking stoves, lamps, oilseed cake (which Diligent is encouraging villagers to put into anaerobic digesters, producing biogas with which to cook), soap, and fertiliser for use on other crops.

There’s no perceptible negative impact, though as Hayo De Feijter, general manager of Diligent, admits: ‘It’s not terribly profitable for farmers yet – 5kg of jatropha yields about 1 litre of oil, but potentially it’s only positive. We aim to make money for local farmers, and for the company, and we avoid all the environmental problems or compensation issues: we pay there and then. If this model could be developed – outgrowing schemes – it’s very hopeful.’

The farmers seem to agree with him. Mzee El Rahema, based in Makoa, in West Kilimanjaro says: ‘I get 180 shillings per kilo (18 pence) of jatropha; I do farming as well, but the extra income means the kids get food, schooling, clothes. It absolutely, definitely does help me and our community, and I am delighted.’

Thembi Mutch is a freelance journalist based in Tanzania

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