Geoff Lawton – Guru or Charlatan?

Jamal Al Dean AKA Geoff Lawton & his current wife Nadia

A little known fact about Geoff Lawton is that he made his cash in the 1980's from growing and selling marijuana on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland, Australia. A number of years, properties and wives later, that same cash paid (in part) for the purchase of his current home, Zaytuna farm. Many might consider that this use of “pot money” was a positive outcome, which perhaps would be the case if it

were not for Lawton's present day, hypocritical, holier than thou, anti-marijuana rhetoric.

Sindhu Webber teaching Nadia's PDC in Jordan

In 2001, Lawton and his now ex-wife Sindhu Webber, purchased Diversity farm, now Zaytuna farm (the name changed with the wife). Sindhu was Geoff's partner and joint facilitator during the

establishment of the “Greening the Desert” project and also Nadia Lawton's teacher on her initial PDC in Jordan.

After several years of physical and psychological abuse, Sindhu ended up in a battered woman’s refuge in Lismore, NSW. Perversely it was during this time that Lawton returned to Jordan and married

Sindhu's student, the young divorcee Nadia. Since then, all references of Sindhu have been erased from the annals of PRI history. Many people including current students are purposefully miss-guided to believe, that it was in fact Geoff and Nadia who established the original project in Jordan, nothing

could be further from the truth.

For a number of years a good percentage of PRI's profits have been quietly filtered to Nadia's family in Jordan, who now, with new friends in the Jordanian Royal family, enjoy a lifestyle of relative luxury in

a sea of surrounding poverty. The Jordanian Permaculture Institute is simply yet another “copy and paste” PRI website, the whole thing is a money laundering scam to privately finance Nadia's family.

From left to right: Lesley Byrne, Princess Basma bint Ali,Nadia, Geoff and Latifa Lawton, in Amman, Jordan

Meanwhile back at Zaytuna farm, students are obliged to share one filthy bathroom with up to 40 other people and are chided as spoiled Westerners, should they dare to complain. The cheapest, lowest

quality home brand supermarket products are purchased for student use, not only food items but also non-biodegradable, toxic cleaning products and cheap bleached toilet tissue.

Home brand products for student use at PRI

There is very little in the way of people care at Zaytuna, students are treated as cattle, their worth to the institute equates to little more than the money they put in the PRI coffers. Consensus, feedback or any kind of open democratic process are fervently discouraged. Lawton and his wife are the sole dictators

of what is ultimately a purely profit driven exercise.

The blatant lack of ethics is not merely confined to Zaytuna itself. Craig Mackintosh (Lawton's cyber lap dog), despite espousing high moral ground on subjects such as fracking, is suspiciously quiet when it comes to the fact of coal seam gas exploration being undertaken just a few kilometres from Zatuna

farm. Local groups have been actively opposing this for some time, without a single word of recognition or support, let alone action from the “so called” Permaculture Research Institute.

Drill rig just a few kilometres from Zaytuna farm

Craig Mackintosh is a particularly suspect character; during one of his visits to Zaytuna, he refused to stay on site or eat any farm food, preferring to eat junk food from the local pub (probably better than what they serve at Zaytuna anyway). Mr Mackintosh also has some very dubious connections in the mainstream media, not to mention his constant praise of the warmongering Obama administration.

Infidels are treated as such at Zaytuna farm and preferential treatment is given to the “good Muslim” brothers and sisters. Despite this blatant inequality, non-Muslim students are still required to to adopt a

twisted version of Sharia law during their stay at Zaytuna, long sleeves and pants are required to be worn at all times (even when swimming). However the Sharia dress code seems to stop short of Mrs

Nadia Lawton, who is often seen parading around in skin tight jeans and a neon pink head scarf!

One Sharia law for them and another one for us?

There is no place for suspect ethics, religious fanaticism and prejudice in permaculture!

Boycott PRI and Geoff Lawton – Don't buy his videos, attend his courses or visit his website and forum and pass this on to everyone you know in the permaculture world.

Below is a letter written to Geoff Lawton from one of his many disgruntled students:

Dear Geoff..I have been reflecting on the PDC I attended in January and have some feedback with an intention to help you and any future PDCs held at the Zaytuna Research Institute.

Firstly I would like to comment that the food provided was unsatisfactory and certainly not to the standard I expected especially with the anticipation of residing on a Permaculture site and certainly did not match the description in the course outline.

Not only were the portions very small and participants often left hungry, but none of the ingredients aside from cucumbers, sweet potato, Portuguese spinach and the odd pumpkin were grown on the site and most of the ingredients bought were not organic but bought from the local supermarkets. This was very disappointing!!

Having a passion for food myself I often helped in the kitchen with the preparation of meals and twice cooked a dinner time meal. I was unable to find any parsley, basil or oregano in the gardens. These simple herbs grow wild in most gardens and in my suburban plot in XXXXX I have Parsley and Basil plants growing out of the cracks in my concrete drive and the oregano and thyme I have to slash back it grows so vigorously with no maintenance at all. I found this disappointing. My view of a Permaculture garden was one of abundance and variety but I did not find this the case on Zaytuna. Yes I am aware of cycles of plants and seasons but found the bare necessities unavailable. Yes I am also aware that the site is an institute and that you have many inexperienced people helping and making mistakes but I find that a poor excuse for the scarcity of the Basics.

I feel there is a Scarcity mentality within the Institute and one of, you should be grateful for what you get. For a 2 thousand dollar plus course I did have an expectation to have a decent budget set aside for food.

On one occasion I arrived late for Breakfast and found the coffee had run out. I approached the kitchen for more coffee and was asked if it was my first or second cup!!...I found that very offensive!!..on reply that I had not had a coffee another pot was made.

I also found the note above the dinner table offensive, quoting:

"Permaculture is about thinking of others..please take a small amount of fruit salad"

… I often helped prepare the fruit salad in the mornings and was astounded that such a small amount of fruit was to be shared amongst 37 People!! (3 Bananas, 6 Nectarines, 4 Oranges,4 Carrots, 4 Apples)..I was even asked to chop it super fine so it would go further!!

I personally costed out the breakfast meal which most of the time was Porridge and Fruit Salad and it worked out to no more than $1.50 a head. This is appalling!!.

..On another occasion I offered to break the monotony of the same thing and asked Nadia if I could make some Banana Bread...She said that there was no more money in the Budget to buy extra ingredients and that she was already using her own money to buy things as the budget had run out!!????..Rubbish!!

To help out, I cooked Two other meals during the two weeks..the first meal a Risotto Bake and the second a Japanese Curry...Both meals the participants and woofers and staff were able to help themselves to seconds and even thirds and still some left over for the next day and both meals did not cost more that $2.50 per head!!

For the Japanese Curry I had to buy some ingredients myself and at the end of the course I presented Nadia with the receipts and offered to do a Contra for a DVD on soils and she responded: "Next time ask me before you go and buy anything"

I was SHOCKED and left speechless...not a thank you...not any acknowledgement for the efforts I went to but rather reprimanded for not asking permission...The receipt by the way was for $35.00.

I did bring the issue around the portions of the food up one morning during class but felt excuses were given and no validity taken to the concerns raised and nothing really changed.

By the way, I was not the only one who felt that way, nearly all participants after thanked me for seeking as most of them were too scared to speak themselves. Just this fact alone is not a good result where people are too afraid to talk!!

..The care factor is LOW!!...that is obvious from the talk from the people within the institution and the rapid turn over of staff.

..I also felt your opening line for the course telling the participants,"if they want to use drugs to do them outside the gate and leave there needles and pot at the gate" to be callous and insensitive!...I appreciate that the institute is a drug free zone but find it hypocritical that most of your staff are stoned anyway..Your delivery shows little sensitivity and as I spoke to you on the course, Permaculture alone will not solve the problems of the world but rather how we deal with each other and that the macro is just a reflection of the micro.

I feel you should also make it clear in your course outline that Zaytuna is a Muslim site. Had I known, I personally would not have attended. Not that I have any prejudice towards Muslims but rather do not want to be controlled by extreme Religious beliefs and have to swim with a shirt on.

I also feel that it would be useful to run courses according to the levels of

experience of the participants..I found the course at times slow and laborious. More humility and less time hearing about your stories and how great you are and more time spent on the content and the time allocated to the final presentation would have been helpful.

Kindest Regards

XXXX XXXXXXX

(names of individuals & places withheld)

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