Archive for June, 2022

Breaking Bread: How Wheat Remade the World

Via Milken Institute, review of a new book Oceans of Grain, that goes beyond the rise of American wheat to reinterpret world history as an epic of control of the flows of nutrition:  You cannot not know history,” said the American architect Philip Johnson. (Though he did successfully conceal his years as a young fascist demagogue in […]

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Farmland In Karabakh Being Given To Powerful Azerbaijanis

Via Eurasianet, an article on a new investigation that has found that agricultural firms connected to powerful Azerbaijanis, including the first family, were given non-transparent contracts to develop land in Karabakh: Agricultural land in the territories Azerbaijan retook in the 2020 war with Armenia are being developed by companies connected to top government officials, a new […]

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Costly Food = Global Unrest

Courtesy of The Economist, a report on how costly food and energy are fostering global unrest: “Money no longer had any value in Istanbul,” laments the narrator of “My Name is Red”, a novel by Orhan Pamuk set in the 16th century. “[B]akeries that once sold large…loaves of bread for one silver coin now baked […]

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Food Nationalism Crisis Threat Looms Over Asia

Via Asia Times, an article on the food nationalism crisis that looms over Asia: Philippine President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr is turning Manila political tradition on its head by taking on the additional title of minister of agriculture. It’s not that Marcos, who takes office on June 30, has vast farming experience or degrees in horticulture. But […]

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Turkey Plans to Lease Foreign Farmland

Via the Hurriyet Daily News, a report on Turkey’s plan to lease farmland in foreign countries such as Venezuela and Sudan: Turkey plans to lease farmlands in several counties in Africa and Latin America to grow crops to boost agricultural production amid growing global concerns over food security. Authorities have been exploring such opportunities in 10 nations, besides Venezuela and […]

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Sudan, UAE Sign MoU For Large Farm Project

Via Farmland Grab, a report on a MoU signed between Sudan and the UAE for a large farm project: Sudan recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the United Arab Emirates for a large agricultural project linked by a road to a new port to be built on the Red Sea, the Sudanese Finance […]

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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.