Archive for February, 2012

Grand Prairie: Speculators Stake Claim On Canada’s Heartland

Via Briar Patch magazine, a report on investor / speculator interest in Canada’s prairie farmland: A 21st-century land rush is sweeping the globe. Amid skyrocketing food prices, climate-related instability, and declining soil and water resources, wealthy investors have begun to size up the world’s farmland as both an investment opportunity and a hedge against food […]

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Impact Of Large-Scale Land Acquisitions On Africa’s Farmers

Via The BBC, a look at the impact of large-scale land acquisitions on Africa’s farmers: “Land grabs” are now one of the biggest issues in Africa. Over the past few years, companies and foreign governments have been leasing large areas of land in some of Africa’s poorest countries. Land deals as % of agricultural area […]

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Potential Of African Land Grabs To Cause Conflict

Via African Agriculture, an article on the potential of land grabs to cause conflict in Africa.  As the report notes: The stampede by wealthy states for arable land across Africa and other developing regions could trigger a series of conflicts if governments fail to protect the rights of their people, two recent studies on land […]

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Farmland Security

Via China Dialogue, a look at how the financial crisis caused investors to flock to agricultural assets, and how the associated risks may help drive a more sustainable approach.  As the article notes: How agricultural land is owned, what is grown on it, and by whom, will probably determine much of the next century’s politics, […]

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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.