June 13th, 2016
Via Reuters, a report on Tanzania’s efforts to seize ‘idle’ land from investors to return to poor farmers: Tanzania has begun a nationwide program to seize land left undeveloped by investors and return it to poor farmers, in a bid to quell conflicts between farmers, herders and developers. For more than a decade, foreign investors have[…]
Read more »Brazil To Lift Limits On Foreigners’ Owning Of Land
May 26th, 2016
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 »April 29th, 2016
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
April 13th, 2016
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 »April 13th, 2016
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
March 29th, 2016
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[…]
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