March 19th, 2025
Via Bangkok Post, commentary on growing Thai concerns around Chinese land purchases: The latest report on Chinese investors buying protected forest land to expand their durian plantations is worrying. This is more than just an illegal land grab, however. Soon, the whole durian supply chain will feel the impact. As such, these blatant land grabs […]
Read more »North Dakota: A Leader In Limiting Chinese Land Purchases
February 14th, 2025
Via Associated Press, a report on North Dakota’s efforts to limit Chinese land purchases in its state: It’s been three years since a Chinese company’s plan to develop a swath of farmland near a North Dakota Air Force base prompted local security concerns and led to a rush of legislation across the country, but calls for restrictions keep coming. If anything, the […]
Read more »February 14th, 2025
Via The Economist, a look at how tensions with the West are fuelling China’s anxiety about food supplies American soyabean farmers could draw some comfort from the tariffs that China imposed on an array of American imports on February 10th. Foodstuffs like theirs were not affected by China’s countermeasures against the 10% levy on Chinese imports […]
Read more »China Is Scouring the Globe in Search of New Food Suppliers
February 3rd, 2025
Via Bloomberg, a look at China’s substantial efforts to future-proof itself for trade wars and the return of Donald Trump: China’s quest to feed itself has taken it as far as Kenya’s macadamia nut groves and Bolivia’s cattle ranches, as part of a push in recent years to diversify food sources away from traditional Western […]
Read more »January 31st, 2025
Via Grist, a look at how climate change is scrambling where the world’s food is grown, a reality that will lead to more tensions over who owns that land: Twelve years ago, Vincenzo Amata stumbled upon a plot of flowering trees while wandering the Sicilian countryside. Before long, he found a farmer tending the grove. […]
Read more »The Coming Great Global Land Reshuffle
January 28th, 2025
Via the Financial Times, commentary on how climate change and population pressures are beginning to drive a new surge of competition over territory: As the world’s climate changes, scientists observe that the southern Californian rainy season is starting later and ending earlier, lining up the peak of the dry season closely with the period of […]
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