July 10th, 2013
Via BBC, an interesting commentary on the possibility of a bubble forming in the farmland investment space: Farmland has become the darling of alternative investing, sending hedge funds and wealthy investors into bidding wars for plots of land once deemed ordinary. And it is not just big money getting in on the game. From Stockholm[…]
Read more »In Colombia, An Alleged American Land Grab Sets Off A Political Storm
July 10th, 2013
Via TIME Magazine, an interesting article on Cargill’s acquisition of land in Colombia: Was it a good-faith investment by a U.S. multinational in Colombia? Or a flagrant land grab? That’s what Colombians are debating following revelations that the Minneapolis-based food giant Cargill Inc. acquired nearly 130,000 acres of former government land that had been donated[…]
Read more »June 16th, 2013
Courtesy of The Diplomat, a look at China’s overseas investment in agricultural ventures: If the Chinese government is to achieve its goal of accelerated urbanization, one issue it must deal with is food security. Already, as China has developed more of its land, concerns have developed over whether enough arable land will be available to[…]
Read more »Indonesia: Experiencing A ‘New Corporate Colonialism’ ?
June 1st, 2013
Courtesy of The Guardian, a look at concerns that multinational companies have been encouraged to seize and deforest land owned by indigenous people in Indonesia: Land conflicts between farmers and plantation owners, mining companies and developers have raged across Indonesia as local and multinational companies have been encouraged to seize and then deforest customary land[…]
Read more »May 5th, 2013
Via Project Syndicate , an interesting commentary on China’s recent intrusion into Indian territory: Stoking tensions with Japan, Vietnam, and the Philippines over islands in the South and East China Seas has not prevented an increasingly assertive China from opening yet another front by staging a military incursion across the disputed, forbidding Himalayan frontier. On[…]
Read more »The Arctic – The New Wild West
May 5th, 2013
Via Pacific Environment, an article on the Arctic: Centuries ago, European settlers stumbled upon the New World, a pristine world teaming with wildlife and abundance. Immediately the race was on to exploit these resources which were thought to be limitless. We now know what happened to the great northern forests, the prairie, the buffalo and[…]
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