Archive for August, 2017

Who Really Owns American Farmland?

Courtesy of The New Food Economy, an article on who really owns American farmland? We’re used to thinking of escalating rents as an urban problem, something suffered mostly by the citizens of booming cities. So when city people look out over a farm—whether they see corn stalks, or long rows of fruit bushes, or cattle […]

Read more »



Iran To Cultivate Rice In South America

Via the Iran Project, a look at Iran’s plans to farm rice in South America: Deputy Iranian agriculture minister, while pointing to imports of rice from Uruguay, said Iran had made an overseas farming plan for cultivating rice in the South American country. Houman Fathi, General Manager of International Affairs of Iran’s Agriculture Ministry, said […]

Read more »



The Bear and the Dragon: Do Not Fear a Chinese Land Grab in the Russian Far East

Via Future Directions International, a look at whether Russian farmland in the Far East is under an imminent Chinese threat: It is both popular and unwise to assume that Russian farmland in the Far East is under an imminent Chinese threat. Popular in the sense that, with Russia hosting 6.2 million people in a federal district […]

Read more »



Foreign Investors Are Snapping Up US Farms

Via Mother Jones, a report on foreign investment interest in U.S. farms: Who owns America’s farms? Not always Americans. US farmland is becoming a target for international investors, according to a handful of recent reports. The amount of foreign-owned US farmland has roughly doubled between 2004 and 2014—with Canada, the Netherlands, and Germany owning the most—the Midwest Center […]

Read more »


  | 
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.