Archive for March, 2012

The Real Hunger Games?

Via MoneyWeb, an article on whether countries’ acquisition of foreign land should be considered as investments or “land grabs”: Within a few years, acquisition of foreign farmland has become an issue with plenty of explosive potential for the environment and security. Priming it is a rush by China, India, South Korea and Gulf petro-economies to […]

Read more »



UN Moves To Curb Global Farms Race

Via The Financial Times, a report that the UN has proposed that countries set limits on the size of agriculture land sales to regulate the growing trend of so-called farmland grabs.  As the article notes: “…The new voluntary guidelines won the consensus of nearly 100 countries this month after three years of negotiations and are […]

Read more »



Investors In Brazil Feel “Tied” On Land Issue

Via The Financial Times, a look at a proposed amendment to laws governing foreign ownership of Brazilian land.  As the article notes: When Simon Veldt’s father and his fellow Dutch immigrant farmers set up the Holambra II co-operative near Paranapanema in southeastern Brazil, the area was known as “Hunger Valley”. The co-operative, launched in the […]

Read more »



Hungry For Land: Review Of The Land Grabbers

Via Conservation Magazine, a review of the upcoming book entitled, The Land Grabbers, by Fred Pearce: When Madagascan President Marc Ravalomanana was ousted in March 2009, a major factor in his new unpopularity was the deal he had made with South Korea’s Daewoo corporation, effectively handing over 1 million hectares of Madagascar’s best agricultural land. […]

Read more »



The Global Land Rush: Let It Grow, Let It Grow, Let It Grow

Via FarmlandGrab.org, a preview of an upcoming IMF report on the global land rush: THE sharp increase in international food prices during 2007–08 triggered a spate of cross-border land acquisitions by sovereign wealth funds, private equity funds, agricultural producers, and other key players in the food and agribusiness industry—fueled by mistrust in international food markets, […]

Read more »



Global Mining Boom = Global Landgrab

Via The Guardian, an article on the impact that the global extraction industry expansion has had upon land and water supplies around the world.  As the report notes: The global mining, oil and gas industries have expanded so fast in the last decade they are now leading to large-scale “landgrabbing” and threatening farming and water […]

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.