Via LandDesk, a report on international destinations of U.S. hay that is grown with limited U.S. water: Pretty much every time I write about the amount of Colorado River water that is consumed to irrigate alfalfa and hay, readers respond with a comment or question about how much of the alfalfa — and therefore Colorado […]
Read more »Via The Atlantic, a report on how Gulf princes, the safari industry, and conservation groups are displacing the Maasai from the last of their Serengeti homeland: It was high safari season in Tanzania, the long rains over, the grasses yellowing and dry. Land Cruisers were speeding toward the Serengeti Plain. Billionaires were flying into private hunting […]
Read more »Courtesy of Bloomberg, a report that – while taps in coastal Dakar barely trickle – an investment company uses Senegal’s only lake to irrigate crops it plans to send to Saudi Arabia: The Senegal River in West Africa musters its force from 200 centimeters (80 inches) of rain a year in the highlands of central […]
Read more »Via National Review, a short commentary on China’s efforts to dominate the world’s food supply: China’s decade-long effort to dominate the world’s food supply has expanded beyond controlling agricultural resources in South America and Africa. Chinese purchases of American agricultural land increased 5,300 percent between 2010 and 2020, and its rate of expansion is accelerating. China […]
Read more »Via Bloomberg, a report on a group of people who came together last month to tackle the worst-case scenario for one of the best-fed regions in the world: The combined forces of El Niño and La Niña have crippled Latin American soy output. Ukrainian and Russian grain farmers have gone to war. Indonesia has banned […]
Read more »Via Jacobin, commentary on Del Monte’s activities in Kenya: In Kenya’s lush Thika region, just north of Nairobi, stealing pineapples is a de facto capital crime. At least nine men have allegedly been killed by security guards employed by Del Monte, the world’s largest producer of pineapples. This series of killings first broke international news in […]
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