Archive for June, 2016

Egyptian Judge Quashes President Sisi’s Red Sea Island Deal With Saudi Arabia

Courtesy of The Wall Street Journal, an article on the legal reversal of a decision that had sparked some of the country’s largest protests in years: An Egyptian judge quashed President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi’s agreement to cede two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia, a deal that sparked some of the country’s largest protests in years […]

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Water Scarcity Slows Foreign Farmland Purchases

Courtesy of Circle of Blue, a look at the impact of water scarcity on foreign land acquisitions: Tanzania’s Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor, a huge farm production project that lies across the country’s southern highlands, seems to represent incisive thinking about Africa’s potential to produce jobs and feed the world. The $US 3.4 billion project envisions […]

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A Rush of Americans, Seeking Gold in Cuban Soil

Courtesy of the New York Times, a look at American interest in Cuba’s agricultural industry The premier organic farm in Cuba, called Finca Marta, is in the countryside, a half-hour’s drive from Havana. Some 25 different crops are grown in a system of tiered beds. The black screen protects the plants from the tropical sun. […]

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Tanzania Seizes ‘Idle’ Land From Investors To Return To Poor Farmers

Via Reuters, a report on Tanzania’s efforts to seize ‘idle’ land from investors to return to poor farmers: Tanzania has begun a nationwide program to seize land left undeveloped by investors and return it to poor farmers, in a bid to quell conflicts between farmers, herders and developers. For more than a decade, foreign investors have […]

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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.