Via the Associated Press, a report on how Saudi land purchases are fueling debate over US water rights: Saudi Arabia’s largest dairy company will soon be unable to farm alfalfa in its own parched country to feed its 170,000 cows. So it’s turning to an unlikely place to grow the water-chugging crop — the drought-stricken American […]
Read more »Via The Financial Times, a report on Pengxin’s, a little-known Shanghai real estate developer that owns Theland, bid to become the world’s largest private landowner if Australia’s authorities clear its most ambitious bid yet: The marketing of “Theland” milk powder says it all — cows graze on emerald grass below white clouds shaped like New Zealand. “A […]
Read more »Via The Financial Times, a look at accuracy of information on global land deals: How much land has been acquired for investment and agriculture over the past decade? The truth is nobody really knows. Non-government organisations, media and academic publications have been assessing so-called land deals – where outsiders acquire huge tracts of land for commercial use […]
Read more »Via The Financial Times, a look at how global market forces are coming into conflict with local populations as the commercial value of land increases: The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is about as Canadian as an institution can be — except on the Saskatchewan prairie, where it has in effect been labelled an outsider. […]
Read more »Courtesy of The Financial Times, a look at how – across the globe – investors are betting billions on land, with a focus on Ethiopia, where a tycoon has planted a vast rice farm in soils tainted by years of conflict: As an orchestra of mosquitoes and crickets greeted the dusk, Bedlu Abera looked out over […]
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