Archive for November, 2010

Boardroom Farmers: Some Of The World’s Biggest Agricultural Investors

Courtesy of The Globe and Mail, a look at some of the world’s largest non-governmental agricultural investors.  As the article notes: “…Global investment funds have sunk as much as $20-billion (U.S.) into farmland, last year alone they bought 111 million acres of farmland, a tenfold increase from previous years. Here are some of the biggest […]

Read more »



Ground Truth On The Global Land Grab

Via The Pesticide Action Network’s GroundTruth blog, an updated look at the global land grab and what some feel is failed thinking that large-scale industrialized agricultural production and biofuel investments, as currently conceived, can ensure the environmental and developmental needs of the planet in a sustainable and equitable way.   As the article notes: “…25,000 villages […]

Read more »



Go South, Young Man

An interesting Reuters report that farmers’ fields in Brazil and Argentina are among the most prized assets in a new global market for agricultural land that has sprung up alongside soaring commodity prices.  As the article notes: “…Private equity and fund managers at a farm investing conference in Geneva named South America a top place […]

Read more »



Global Farmland Attracts “Impact” Investors

Via Reuters, an interesting article that presents the global land rush for a different perspective, namely one of an instrument of positive investment change.  As the report notes: “…Investors eyeing agriculture in Africa, Latin America and other global markets are increasingly merging their pursuit of profits with a philanthropic zeal that promoters say will pay […]

Read more »


  | 
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.