December 13th, 2022
Via Eco Business, commentary on link between food security and national security: Despite containing 60 per cent of the world’s uncultivated arable land, Africa has been a net food importer for decades. According to the most recent estimates, food imports are the biggest budget item for many countries across the continent. Amid surging food prices and an[…]
Read more »Russian Oligarch Seizes 400,000 Acres of Ukrainian Farmland
December 6th, 2022
Courtesy of the Wall Street Journal, an article on how the family company of a Putin ally and former Russian agriculture minister has become one of the biggest farm operators in Ukraine: Soon after Russian tanks rolled into eastern Ukraine, three of that country’s biggest farming operators lost tracts of land equivalent to more than[…]
Read more »November 14th, 2022
Courtesy of The New York Times, a report on how small farmers are now going up against deep-pocketed investors, including private equity firms and real estate developers: Joel Gindo thought he could finally own and operate the farm of his dreams when a neighbor put up 160 acres of cropland for sale in Brookings County,[…]
Read more »Countries Most Affected by Land Grabs
November 13th, 2022
Via Statista, a visual look at the impact of land grabs worldwide: According to an analysis of the Land Matrix database, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the country most heavily affected by land grabs, defined as the buying, leasing or concession land use for commercial purposes by companies from abroad, affecting land that had previously been[…]
Read more »November 7th, 2022
Courtesy of The Economist, a look at how armed movements disrupt food production and export: At first glance, Vladimir Putin has little in common with an Ethiopian foot-soldier. One man has palaces and nuclear weapons, the other a shack and an old Kalashnikov. Yet both illustrate a global problem: that food supplies are often disrupted[…]
Read more »Wells Run Dry In US Southwest As Foreign-Owned Farms Guzzle Water To feed Cattle Overseas
November 7th, 2022
Via CNN, an article on how wells are running dry in drought-weary Southwest as foreign-owned farms guzzle water to feed cattle overseas: Workers with the water district in Wenden, Arizona, saw something remarkable last year as they slowly lowered a camera into the drought-stricken town’s well: The water was moving. But the aquifer which sits below the small desert[…]
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