January 22nd, 2020
Via The Crimson, interesting commentary on investments being made in avocados and retrenchment of investments in water-scarce Australia: The Harvard Management Company adjusted its natural resource portfolio this week by purchasing a minority stake in produce company Westfalia Fruit International and selling its investments in two Australian farms. HMC — the University’s investment arm — […]
Read more »Cellular Agriculture: May Soon Destroy Farming and Save The Planet
January 17th, 2020
Via The Guardian, interesting commentary on how scientists’ efforts to replace replacing crops and livestock with food made from microbes and water may save humanity’s bacon: It sounds like a miracle, but no great technological leaps were required. In a commercial lab on the outskirts of Helsinki, I watched scientists turn water into food. Through […]
Read more »November 30th, 2019
Via The Wall Street Journal, a detailed look at how oil-rich Gulf states grow crops in Egypt and Sudan to export, leaving locals increasingly dependent on imports: At the end of the world’s longest river, Ahmad Muhammad has run out of fresh water. For generations, water from the Nile irrigated wheat, rice, corn and eggplants that Mr. […]
Read more »For Gujarat farmers, Africa Is Calling
November 28th, 2019
Via the Ahmedabad Mirror, a report on Indian farmers exploring Africa’s agricultural potential: Abundance of fertile land, cheap labour and availability of water are driving farmers from Gujarat to explore Africa, which has 60 per cent of world’s agriculture land, most of the unexplored. While some farmers have already achieved great success in their ventures, efforts are […]
Read more »October 31st, 2019
Via Associated Press, a report on Ukraine’s plan to sell farmland: Most of Ukraine’s rich farmland is carved up into small plots owned by about 7 million people, like Tetiana Petrovych, the postmistress in this village west of the capital. They own the land but can’t sell it. Ukraine, which is one of the top grain […]
Read more »Big Promises, Few Results: Chinese Farms Falter In Uganda
September 19th, 2019
Via The Christian Science Monitor, a report on the performance of Chinese farms in Uganda: The first Abel Mukalazi knew of the land grab was when he saw workers erecting a barbed wire fence around the pasture where his family had grazed their cattle for half a century. He went to the police. They told […]
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