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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-CA link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Thanks Nat<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Glad to hear things are cooking for you too.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Re Japtopha:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>“</span><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Jatropha is regarded by many as an invasive plant and has been declared a noxious weed in parts of Australia, FAO pointed out. South Africa has banned its commercial production.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>The politics of that decision in South Africa have nothing to do with what was reported above in the article. Let’s say, it was not that simple. There was a crop-nationalist fervour at the time which was successful in getting the idea that ‘all foreign plants’ should be banned. As Dr Bill Mollison (he of Permaculture fame) said in Mbabane to an indigenous plant advocate, “There is nothing you eat that is not a foreign plant.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Zambia also banned it when the Durban-based company, faced with a ban at home and already established, looked further afield to find producers. They encouraged farmers in Swaziland, Zambian and Mozambique to produce it. Zambia banned it not for ‘any particular reason’ but simply because South Africa had banned it. They took the oft-heard position of claiming that the rich down south were ‘passing off their toxic crop growing onto the poor nations further north’ and ‘they weren’t even allowed to grow it in their own country’. That sort of thing which included quite a bit of laying the race card. I think after a while more sanity prevailed and that Zambia is now producing some.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>It is interesting how the argument about whether or not it should be a food crop as well as an energy crop comes up so much. It doesn’t seem to bother people that trees are grown on vast acreage and can’t be eaten. Or that cabbages are grown on vast acreage and make a lousy fuel. It is a completely artificial, emotion-raising argument. Growing maize for fuel does not disturb the food market, but subsidies sure do! Wow. It is hard to be Green and politically correct these days! So many things to oppose. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>When food goes bad (like maize) what better use of it than as a stove fuel? Maize is a great pelletized bio-fuel. There is a lot of crop waste that can be used for fuel. It does not have to be the primary intention of the farmer to make fuel, but it is a good fall-back position.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Regards<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Crispin<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></body></html>