October 28th, 2024
Via Nikkei Asia, a report on Putin’s proposal for a BRICS grain exchange: Russia is leading a charge to turn the BRICS economic bloc into the top influencer of global grain prices. In a declaration following a three-day BRICS summit this week in Kazan, Russia, a call for the end of “illegal sanctions” against members […]
Read more »Carbon Colonialism and Land Grabs: Africa Must Eat or Be Eaten
October 1st, 2024
Via Pan African Review, commentary on how – if Africa can’t contribute to putting food on the world’s table – someone will buy or seize its lands by force and do so: Over the last year, the Liberian government has agreed to sell or has sold about 10% of the country’s land — equivalent to 10,931 square […]
Read more »September 23rd, 2024
Via Mongabay, an article on what some are calling the world’s biggest deforestation project in PNG: Land clearing has begun is what’s being called the biggest deforestation effort in the world, as Indonesia looks to establish 2 million hectares (5 million acres) of sugarcane plantations in the Papua region. One of the companies involved in […]
Read more »Laundering Carbon—The Gulf’s ‘New Scramble for Africa’
September 6th, 2024
Via Middle East Research and Information Project, a report on The Gulf’s ‘new scramble for Africa’: In early November 2023, shortly before the COP28 summit opened in Dubai, a hitherto obscure UAE firm attracted significant media attention around news of their prospective land deals in Africa. Reports suggested that Blue Carbon—a company privately owned by […]
Read more »September 5th, 2024
Via Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP), a new report on extractive agribusinesses used to help ensure food security in the Arab region: Between 2014 and 2021, the total number of Arabs suffering from moderate to severe food insecurity increased from 120 million to 154 million.[1] This insecurity, however, was not distributed evenly across the […]
Read more »Is the Communist Party Buying Up Farms?
August 21st, 2024
Via The Economist, a look at why U.S. politicians are obsessed with mythical Chinese land grabs There was a time when Kim Reynolds, the governor of Iowa, had no problem with Chinese investment. In 2012, when she was the state’s lieutenant governor, she met Xi Jinping, then China’s vice-premier, on a visit to Beijing. In 2017, as governor, she […]
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