Buffett May Avoid Brazil Backlash

Amid reports that Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is seeking a partnership with Brazilian billionaire Rubens Ometto and soybean grower Blairo Maggi to buy farmland in the South American country, Agrimoney has an interesting report on how the planned venture could be structured to avoid the recent backlash in Brazil against foreign land investors.  As […]

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Qatar Sows Seeds Globally In Bid for Food Security

Via The National, an analysis of Qatar’s acquisition and investment actions worldwide in order to ensure its food security.  As the article notes: “…To help ensure a steady supply of food for the nation’s fast-growing population, the $1 billion (Dh3.7bn) subsidiary of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund finalised a $500 million agreement last year to grow […]

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Is Africa Up For Grabs?

In a new report issued by Friends of the Earth, the charity accuses European companies of land-grabbing throughout Africa to grow biofuel crops that directly compete with food crops.  As the document notes: “…Access to land provides food and livelihoods for billions of people around the world, but as the availability of fertile land and […]

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The Great Acquisition

Via Craccum, a report on global land acquisitions: “…In June this year Africa’s youngest president finally agreed to hold elections. Democracy, it appears, is returning to Madagascar after 35-year-old Andry Rajoelina assumed power in a coup d’état in March 2009 with the assistance of the national army. However the African Union remains cautious and Madagascar […]

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Selling The Farm

Courtesy of Australia’s ABC News, a detailed report on how foreign interests including state-owned companies from China and the Middle East are increasingly looking to Australia to secure their food production by purchasing key agricultural assets. “…The sale of agricultural land is exempt under Foreign Investment Review Board regulations and the FIRB’s attention is usually […]

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Food Security: An Opportunity Or Threat To Australia?

Via Australia’s ABC Radio, a transcript of a very interesting interview on food and water security which is shaping up as one of the hottest issues of the 21st century and may offer valuable opportunities for Australian agriculture in the future.  As the interview notes: “…because compared to many other countries, Australia has vast tracts […]

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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.