October 21st, 2025
Via the Washington Post, a look at how China weaponized soybeans to squeeze U.S. farmers — and spite Trump: The start of the harvest in September is usually when China, the world’s biggest importer of soybeans, puts in a flurry of orders to the farms of Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Indiana. This year, however, Chinese […]
Read more »Gulf Powers Bet Big on Africa In Food Security Race
October 10th, 2025
Via Arabian Gulf Business Insight, a look at how the Gulf powers have bet big on Africa in the global food security race: In September, Qatar unveiled plans for a staggering $100 billion investment push into Africa. Agriculture, infrastructure and energy were placed at the heart of the venture. Stakeholders called it a “milestone” not […]
Read more »July 9th, 2025
Via The Washington Post, a report that the Trump administration will use executive action and work with state officials to ban sales of farmland nationwide to buyers linked to China and other foreign adversaries: U.S. Department of Agriculture chief Brooke Rollins announced Tuesday that the U.S. government will move to ban sales of farmland nationwide […]
Read more »Gulf Investors In, Locals Out: Pakistan’s Corporate Farming Agenda
June 10th, 2025
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 »May 31st, 2025
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
May 17th, 2025
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. […]
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