Via The Guardian, an article on Bill Gates’ private ownerships of U.S. farmland: Bill Gates has never been a farmer. So why did the Land Report dub him “Farmer Bill” this year? The third richest man on the planet doesn’t have a green thumb. Nor does he put in the back-breaking labor humble people do to grow […]
Read more »Via The Diplomat, an article on a debate over the national security implications of foreign land ownership in Japan: In recent years, the Japanese government has sought to draft and enact new legislation to regulate the acquisition and use of Japanese land with implications for national security. Currently, there are no Japanese laws or regulations […]
Read more »Via Newsweek, an article on China’s food security issues and what that could mean for the global farms race: Consider U.S. farmers happy. They are exporting record volumes of products to China. Shipments of soybeans, corn and pork are bringing smiles back to the American heartland. Or, to put this another way, Beijing is effectively […]
Read more »Via Oxfam, commentary on Africa’s land rush: Remember the global riots over food set off by sharp spikes in commodity prices in 2008? The biofuel hype as THE solution to dirty oil? And the financial crisis that drove investors to look for alternative assets to invest their dollars, euros and pounds? As these developments came […]
Read more »Via Mongabay, a report on a plan to clear millions of hectares of forest in Papua New Guinea: Natural forests spanning 1.1 million hectares (2.7 million acres) in Indonesia’s Papua region have been slated for conversion, mostly for oil palm plantations, according to a new report by a coalition of NGOs. For now, more than […]
Read more »Via Al Jazeera, an article on a recent Kazakh presidential order banning foreign ownership of farmland: Kazakhstan will permanently ban foreigners from owning or renting farmland in the vast Central Asian nation, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has said, ending a lengthy dispute that once prompted anti-government protests. Kazakhstan is a major producer of grains, oilseeds and […]
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