August 7th, 2017
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 »Loss of Fertile Land Fuels ‘Looming Crisis’ Across Africa
July 30th, 2017
Via The New York Times, a look at how climate change, soil degradation and rising wealth are shrinking the amount of usable land in Africa just as the number of people who need it is rising fast The two elders, wearing weather-beaten cowboy hats with the strings cinched under their chins, stood at the edge[…]
Read more »July 11th, 2017
Some interesting commentary by Brahma Chellaney on China’s territorial expansion strategy in Asia: China honed its “salami slicing” strategy in the Himalayan borderlands with India in the 1950s, when it grabbed the Switzerland-sized Aksai Chin plateau by surreptitiously building a strategic highway through that unguarded region. Aksai Chin, part of the original princely state of[…]
Read more »China’s High-Altitude Land Grab
June 21st, 2017
Via Project Syndicate, a look at China’s Himalayan land grab: Bite by kilometer-size bite, China is eating away at India’s Himalayan borderlands. For decades, Asia’s two giants have fought a bulletless war for territory along their high-altitude border. Recently, though, China has become more assertive, underscoring the need for a new Indian containment strategy. On[…]
Read more »May 23rd, 2017
Via AgWeb, an interesting look at at China’s global food web: Chinese company Wanbao Grains & Oils Co. processes rice in the Limpopo Valley, Mozambique. Inside a gated compound patrolled by armed guards, hulking towers and concrete buildings loom over fields where Silva Muthemba once grew maize and fattened his cattle. The granaries and surveillance[…]
Read more »Farming the World: China’s Epic Race to Avoid a Food Crisis
May 23rd, 2017
Via Bloomberg, a look at China’s efforts to feed its future: China’s 1.4 billion people are building up an appetite that is changing the way the world grows and sells food. The Chinese diet is becoming more like that of the average American, forcing companies to scour the planet for everything from bacon to bananas. But China’s[…]
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