June 21st, 2009
Via Foreign Policy In Focus, an interesting look at how the food crisis, partly characterized by unstable markets and low reserves, has led governments to seek measures to meet their food security needs more directly than through global trade. As the article notes: “…Governments and corporations looking to outsource food and energy more directly themselves[…]
Read more »A Wave of Global Land Grabs
June 18th, 2009
Via Counter Currents, a detailed review of the wave of land grabs from the black earth of Southern Russia and the Ukraine, to Cambodia, Indonesia and the Philippines in south-east Asia, to Pakistan, to Sudan, Zambia, Ethiopia, Mozambique and Madagascar in Africa and even into the Amazon. As the article notes: “…Governments – concerned about[…]
Read more »June 18th, 2009
Via Ethio Media, an in-country piece looking at the issues & concerns over Ethiopia’s recent sales of land to foreign firms. As the article notes: “…A while back, the capo di tutti capi (the “boss of bosses”) of the dictatorship in Ethiopia rebuked Congressman Donald Payne for pushing H.R. 2003 (“Ethiopia Democracy and Accountability Act”).[…]
Read more »Peak Soil and The Quiet Land Grab
June 18th, 2009
Via The Market Oracle, an interesting investment-focused review of the global land grab. As the article notes: “…According to the Economist, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and China have been “quietly” buying up more than $20 billion of this asset. It’s not oil or natural gas assets though. And it’s not the molybdenum they need to build[…]
Read more »May 29th, 2009
Via The International Relations and Security Network, an interesting look at the trend towards global food outsourcing. As the report notes: “…From Mexico to Pakistan, citizens took to the streets last summer to protest what they saw as their government’s inability to do anything about skyrocketing food prices. In Burkina Faso, rioters shut down main[…]
Read more »China’s Ground War: Africa As Its New Rice Bowl?
May 29th, 2009
Via The Jamestown Foundation, a look at China’s historical tendency – and future potential – to turn its attention to Africa at the beginning of this decade to fill its people’s rice bowl. As the article notes: “…African nations, with their vast and sparsely populated fertile lands, offer China a solution to its rising food[…]
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