Archive for July, 2012

Second Scramble for Africa

Via CNN, a report on the land grab in Africa: It is being dubbed by some as the “Second Scramble for Africa” – millions of acres of land being snapped up by companies from Asia and the Middle East. The land rush was in part spurred by the food and financial crisis of 2008, when […]

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Cambodia’s Deadly Land Grab Battle

Via China Dialogue, a look at Cambodia as a microcosm of a violent struggle playing out across the globe for control of a shrinking – and therefore increasingly valuable – pool of natural resources: On 26 April, Cambodian military police shot the environmental campaigner Chut Wutty as he sat at the wheel of his blood-red […]

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Green Grabbing

Via China Dialogue, an article on green grabbing — the process through which organizations, by putting a value on nature, have fostered a wave of land grabbing: Transnational Institute (TNI): What is green grabbing? Melissa Leach (ML): I think The Guardian journalist John Vidal might have first coined the word, but it encompasses all the […]

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Politics Of Investment In Large Scale Agricultural Ventures

Via IPP Media, an article on the politics of investment in large scale agricultural ventures: Tanzania has always been a country on the spotlight over cases of land grabbing for various uses. Over the recent past there has been a lot of information in both print and electronic media of land being taken for various […]

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Wall Street Goes Farming…Or How African Politicians Gave Away $100bn Of Land

Via The Africa Report, an article on how – with minimal consultation – governments and local authorities are signing away huge tracts of land for lease on the cheap.  As the report notes: The Nguruman Escarpment is one of global tourism’s secrets. Rising from the arid and salty wastes of Lake Magadi as the Rift […]

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India Among Top 10 Land Grabbers

Via The Times of India, a report detailing India’s hunger for arable land overseas.  As the article notes: India is among the top 10 nations to acquire land in both domestic and transnational deals, according to a report released this month by the Washington-based World Watch Institute (WWI). It lists India as a big investor […]

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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.