By Hannah Furfaro
ISU cuts ties to AgriSol | Ames Tribune
Staff Writer
Iowa State University no will longer participate in an advisory capacity on a controversial agriculture project in Tanzania, the university announced Friday.
The large-scale agricultural project, led by Iowa-based company AgriSol Energy, includes introducing new crops and farming techniques to underdeveloped regions in Tanzania. The plan, which originally included leasing land currently occupied by 160,000 refugees from Burundi, has drawn fire over the last several months from the media. AgriSol Energy has since withdrawn its plans to proceed on those plots.
According to a statement from ISU College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Dean Wendy Wintersteen, ISU decided this week to completely end its involvement with AgriSol Energy, because much of our time and energy has been directed at countering misrepresentations about why and how we were involved.
In September 2011, ISU unofficially withdrew its plans to work on education and outreach programs related to AgriSols project. The university never signed a contract with AgriSol, but individuals from the university, including David Acker, associate dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and economics professor Kevin Kimle, had traveled to Tanzania to begin planning outreach programs for small farmers affected by the development.
In late January, Wintersteen and representatives from AgriSol said two ISU faculty, Mark Westgate and Kimle, still were working for AgriSol as private consultants. Henry Akona, director of communications at AgriSol, said both Westgate and Kimle have since ended their consulting work with AgriSol. The conclusion of their consulting work occurred almost simultaneously with Iowa States decision to end their limited advisory role, Akona said. Were very sad and disappointed, and we understand that Iowa State needs to make its own decision, Akona said. But personally, for me, the point that is getting lost here is exactly what the consulting was. The consulting was HIV, AIDS and malaria prevention; it was food storage; it was how to manage a micro-loan and a checking account; it was how to grow crops in a straight line. It wasnt how to design nuclear missiles. It wasnt how to design bombs.
Kimle did not wish to comment on his consulting work. Westgate could not be reached for comment Friday.
The media attention, Wintersteen said in the statement, has not been directed at what originally compelled us to explore program development in Tanzania the role agricultural education can play in helping small farmers and families struggling against poverty and hunger.
On Monday, Wintersteen notified Eric Moxham, managing director at AltEnergy LLC, a Connecticut and Iowa-based company that was working with AgriSol on the project, that ISU no longer would serve in an advisory capacity to AgriSol.
Wintersteen didnt elaborate on her decision in her email to Moxham. Moxham was unavailable for comment Friday.
Hannah Furfaro can be reached at
(515) 663-6918 or
hfurfaro@amestrib.com.