D1 Oils, UK
Nominated for Other (specify below)
Wednesday 23 April 2008
Reasons for this nomination
D1 Oils, UK nominated for Slipperiest Biopirate for “acquiring” 18 varieties of high-oil content and drought-resistant Jatropha, which were being grown at the Indira Ghandi Agriculture University, Raipur, India. It appears that an employee of the university took the varieties, then quit his post at the university and, days later, was named technical director of D1’s Indian operations. Jatropha is being promoted as an biofuel (agrofuel) crop. D1 Oils is involved in a $160 million joint venture with BP; they expect to produce 2 million tons of jatropha oil/year for agrofuels.