Archive for July, 2010

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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World Bank Report On The Global Land Grab

Via The Financial Times, an article on the recent World Bank report on the global farms race.  As the article notes: “…Investors in farmland are targeting countries with weak laws, buying arable land on the cheap and failing to deliver on promises of jobs and investments, according to the draft of a report by the […]

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Africa + Middle East = Agricultural Success?

Via TradeArabia, a recent report on the logical link between Middle East investment and African agricultural potential.  As the article notes: “…Africa’s untapped agriculture potential make it an ideal partner for resource-constrained Middle Eastern countries that seek to improve their food security, a new report from Standard Chartered Bank said. The African continent is relatively […]

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Ukraine: A Global Breadbasket?

Via Le Monde, an article focused on Ukraine’s agricultural potential and international interest in such.  As the report notes: “…In a few years’ time Ukraine could regain its position as a global breadbasket, realising the huge agricultural potential of its famous chernozem (black earth), one of the most fertile soils in the world. Agriculture is […]

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The Dangerous Geopolitics of Food Scarcity

Courtesy of Treehugger, an interesting report by Lester Brown on the politics of food and food scarcity.  As the article notes: “…[the] dangerous geopolitics of food scarcity is emerging in which individual countries, acting in their narrowly defined self-interest, reinforce the trends causing global food security to deteriorate. This began in late 2007 when wheat-exporting […]

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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.