Gulf Investors In, Locals Out: Pakistan’s Corporate Farming Agenda

Via Farmland Grab, a look at Pakistan’s corporate farming agenda: “Calling Cholistan a ‘barren wasteland’ to justify corporate land grabs is not just false—it erases our history,”[1] says Fazal e Rab Lund, a Saraiki Baloch leader from Cholistan in Punjab, Pakistan, with anguish about his homeland. Known traditionally as Rohi, this region was once part of […]

Read more »




The Hidden Politics and Power of Agribusiness

Via MIT Press Reader, a look at how – as food grows more global – so does the influence of the corporations controlling it: When Bayer acquired Monsanto for $63 billion in 2018, it wasn’t just a mega-merger of agricultural giants — it was a tipping point in the consolidation of global food power. The deal signaled […]

Read more »


‘Green Grab’: Solar and Wind Boom Sparks Conflicts on Land Use

Via Yale e360, a look at how solar and wind farms are proliferating and increasingly taking up land worldwide, prompting criticism from rural communities and environmentalists. Solutions range from growing crops or grazing livestock under PV panels to putting floating solar farms on lakes and reservoirs. In California, sheep safely graze amid giant solar farms. […]

Read more »




Thailand: Stop Chinese Land Grabs

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

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 »




Grain Pains: Tensions With West Fuel China’s Anxiety About Food Supplies

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 »



  |  Next Page »
About This Blog And Its Author
Seeds Of A Revolution is committed to defining the disruptive geopolitics of the global Farms Race.  Due to the convergence of a growing world population, increased water scarcity, and a decrease in arable land & nutrient-rich soil, a spike of international investment interest in agricultural is inevitable and apt to bring a heretofore domestic industry into a truly global realm.  Whether this transition involves global land leases or acquisitions, the fundamental need for food & the protectionist feelings this need can give rise to is highly likely to cause such transactions to move quickly into the geopolitical realm.  It is this disruptive change, and the potential for a global farms race, that Seeds Of A Revolution tracks, analyzes, and forecasts.

Educated at Yale University (Bachelor of Arts - History) and Harvard (Master in Public Policy - International Development), Monty Simus has long held a keen interest in natural resource policy and the geopolitical implications of anticipated stresses in the areas of freshwater scarcity, biodiversity reserves & parks, and farm land.  Monty has lived, worked, and traveled in more than forty countries spanning Africa, China, western Europe, the Middle East, South America, and Southeast & Central Asia, and his personal interests comprise economic development, policy, investment, technology, natural resources, and the environment, with a particular focus on globalization’s impact upon these subject areas.  Monty writes about freshwater scarcity issues at www.waterpolitics.com and frontier investment markets at www.wildcatsandblacksheep.com.