March 21st, 2016
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 »Debate Over Big Land Data
March 5th, 2016
Via The Financial Times, a look at accuracy of information on global land deals: How much land has been acquired for investment and agriculture over the past decade? The truth is nobody really knows. Non-government organisations, media and academic publications have been assessing so-called land deals – where outsiders acquire huge tracts of land for commercial use[…]
Read more »March 4th, 2016
Via The Financial Times, a look at how global market forces are coming into conflict with local populations as the commercial value of land increases: The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is about as Canadian as an institution can be — except on the Saskatchewan prairie, where it has in effect been labelled an outsider.[…]
Read more »The Great Land Rush: Ethiopia – The Billionaire’s Farm
March 2nd, 2016
Courtesy of The Financial Times, a look at how – across the globe – investors are betting billions on land, with a focus on Ethiopia, where a tycoon has planted a vast rice farm in soils tainted by years of conflict: As an orchestra of mosquitoes and crickets greeted the dusk, Bedlu Abera looked out over[…]
Read more »February 18th, 2016
Via Foreign Policy, a report on the biggest overseas purchase in Chinese history which is meant to ensure the world’s largest country can keep feeding its people: China’s biggest-ever overseas acquisition, announced this month, isn’t about gobbling up resources to feed its industrial maw, broadening its financial leverage, or enhancing its strategic position. Rather, the[…]
Read more »Saudi Arabia Buying Up Farmland In Southwestern U.S.
January 27th, 2016
Via Digital Journal, a report on Saudi Arabia’s interest in American farmland: In what looks to be a prelude to the “water wars,” Saudi Arabia has been buying up farmland in the southwestern part of the U.S. to grow alfalfa hay that is then shipped back to Saudi Arabia to feed its dairy cattle because[…]
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