Brazil To Lift Limits On Foreigners’ Owning Of Land

Via Reuters, a report on Brazil’s revised rules on foreign ownership of land: Brazil’s government plans to lift current limits on foreign ownership of agricultural land, Secretary of Investment Moreira Franco, the person behind privatization for the new administration, told Reuters on Wednesday. Franco called the restriction on sales of agricultural land to foreign individuals […]

Read more »




Australia to Reject Chinese Deal to Buy Cattle Ranch Empire

Courtesy of the Wall Street Journal, a report on Australia’s decision to reject a Chinese effort to purchase land in the size of Ireland: Australia’s government intends to reject a deal led by Chinese investors to buy the country’s largest cattle-ranch empire, in a signal of rising official concern about offshore investment in the country’s […]

Read more »


Global Land Grabs: Village Chiefs vs. International Corporations

Via Foreign Policy, a detailed report on the increasing tendency for multinational corporations to acquire large tracks of land worldwide: Joyce Chachengwa woke up one morning to find her crops — her only source of food and income — ground into the dirt. Chisumbanje is a small village in eastern Zimbabwe, right on the border […]

Read more »




Chinese Firm Buys Agricultural Land In France

Via EurActiv, a report on a recent Chinese acquisition of farmland in France: A Chinese company has acquired hundreds of hectares of cereal-producing farmland in central France. This unprecedented situation has provoked astonishment and anger in the farming community. EurActiv’s partner Journal de l’Environnement reports. The reaction of the French National Federation of Land Management and […]

Read more »


Saudi Land Purchases Fuel Debate Over U.S. Water Rights

Via the Associated Press, a report on how Saudi land purchases are fueling debate over US water rights: Saudi Arabia’s largest dairy company will soon be unable to farm alfalfa in its own parched country to feed its 170,000 cows. So it’s turning to an unlikely place to grow the water-chugging crop — the drought-stricken American […]

Read more »




The Great Land Rush: China’s Pengxin Hits Overseas Hurdles

Via The Financial Times, a report on Pengxin’s, a little-known Shanghai real estate developer that owns Theland, bid to become the world’s largest private landowner if Australia’s authorities clear its most ambitious bid yet: The marketing of “Theland” milk powder says it all — cows graze on emerald grass below white clouds shaped like New Zealand. “A […]

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.