March 29th, 2012
Via MoneyWeb, an article on whether countries’ acquisition of foreign land should be considered as investments or “land grabs”: Within a few years, acquisition of foreign farmland has become an issue with plenty of explosive potential for the environment and security. Priming it is a rush by China, India, South Korea and Gulf petro-economies to[…]
Read more »UN Moves To Curb Global Farms Race
March 25th, 2012
Via The Financial Times, a report that the UN has proposed that countries set limits on the size of agriculture land sales to regulate the growing trend of so-called farmland grabs. As the article notes: “…The new voluntary guidelines won the consensus of nearly 100 countries this month after three years of negotiations and are[…]
Read more »March 25th, 2012
Via The Financial Times, a look at a proposed amendment to laws governing foreign ownership of Brazilian land. As the article notes: When Simon Veldt’s father and his fellow Dutch immigrant farmers set up the Holambra II co-operative near Paranapanema in southeastern Brazil, the area was known as “Hunger Valley”. The co-operative, launched in the[…]
Read more »Hungry For Land: Review Of The Land Grabbers
March 13th, 2012
Via Conservation Magazine, a review of the upcoming book entitled, The Land Grabbers, by Fred Pearce: When Madagascan President Marc Ravalomanana was ousted in March 2009, a major factor in his new unpopularity was the deal he had made with South Korea’s Daewoo corporation, effectively handing over 1 million hectares of Madagascar’s best agricultural land.[…]
Read more »March 4th, 2012
Via FarmlandGrab.org, a preview of an upcoming IMF report on the global land rush: THE sharp increase in international food prices during 2007–08 triggered a spate of cross-border land acquisitions by sovereign wealth funds, private equity funds, agricultural producers, and other key players in the food and agribusiness industry—fueled by mistrust in international food markets,[…]
Read more »Global Mining Boom = Global Landgrab
March 4th, 2012
Via The Guardian, an article on the impact that the global extraction industry expansion has had upon land and water supplies around the world. As the report notes: The global mining, oil and gas industries have expanded so fast in the last decade they are now leading to large-scale “landgrabbing” and threatening farming and water[…]
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