Archive for February, 2014

Is Africa’s Land Up For Grabs?

Via AllAfrica, an interesting article on land acquisitions in Africa: An apparent surge in the purchase of African land by foreign companies and governments to grow food and other crops for export has set alarm bells ringing on and off the continent. The headlines have been strident: “The Second Scramble for Africa Starts,” “Quest for […]

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Pacific Land Grab Among World’s Worst

Via RadioAustralia, a report from an international expert on land-grabbing who says the Pacific has some of the world’s worst examples of the practice: Land-grabbing happens when, usually foreign companies, buy or lease large tracts of land for a pittance robbing traditional owners of a birthright that has been theirs for generations and which should […]

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Stealing The Great Rainforests Of PNG

Via the Global Mail, an article on how 5 million hectares of Papua New Guinea’s jungle is under threat from foreign land grabs and back-door logging: Gabriel Molok is directing us into his clan’s country, a sweep of steamy jungle wrapped tight around the once lost, languorous shore of Turubu Bay, Papua New Guinea. After […]

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Africa: Chops And Robbers

Via AllAfrica, a look at the connection between deforestation and the global land grab: Sprawling across the heart of Africa, the Congo basin covers 3.7m square kilometres and is home to the planet’s second-largest tropical rainforest after the Amazon. The forest spans six countries in central and western Africa: Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic […]

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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.