Global Land Grab

"Plant a kernel of wheat and you reap a pint; plant a pint and you reap a bushel. Always the law works to give you back more than you give."

-Anthony Norvell

America has always been an insular nation, looking inwards at itself, rarely outwards at the world. When I watch US news broadcasts I'll see stories on the US President, US celebrities and sports stars, US companies and unions, and maybe a few minutes for foreign wars that the US is engaged in. Or I can watch BBC World and learn what is happening in the other 96% of the world (by population).

Consider the story, The backlash begins against the world landgrab, from the British Telegraph.co.uk. Have you seen any mention in the US press of a global land grab? Or of food riots in 2008? (I've covered this at Possible Wheat Shortage? and  Global Food Shortages?)

"As is by now well-known, sovereign wealth funds from the Mid-East, as well as state-entities from China, the Pacific Rim, and even India are trying to lock up chunks of the world's future food supply. Western agribusiness is trying to beat them to it. Western funds - many listed on London's AIM exchange - are in turn trying to beat them. The NGO GRAIN, and farmlandgrab.com, have both documented the stampede in detail." - Telegraph.co.uk

In Argentia 7% of the land is owned by foreigners. Brazil is passed a law limiting foreign ownership but land grabbers get around this by purchasing through local puppet companies. "Brazilian land must stay in the hands of Brazilians," said the Farm Development Minister, Guilherme Cassel. In Madasgascar, the government "fell" in 2008 when the citizens learned that acerage half the size of Belgium was being leased to Korea's Daiwoo Logistics to plant corn. "Madagascar's land is neither for sale nor for rent," said the new president who revoked the lease.

The World Bank says we must lift global food production by 70% by 2050 to meet converging demands of extra mouths, rising use of grain as animal feed as Asia moves up the affluence ladder to meat-based diets, and the conversion of grains to biofuel. Farm productivity has flattened out in the US but there is room for improvement in other nations; in Russia, for example, farms are only 50% as productive as the US. Globally there is an additional 450 million hectares of land (on top of the existing 1.5 billion hectares in production) that could become useful farm land with improved irrigation. Both these improvements and more will be needed to reach the 70% target.

In 2008 there was a hint of what the future may hold. Countries that rely on food imports were shocked when Russia stopped exporting wheat due to a poor harvest (Russia decided to feed its own people first.) There were bread riots in Egypt, Indonesia, and a string of states in Africa. This year it is happening again. Russia has imposed a grain export ban and there was a food riot in Mozambique.

Nations with money and corporations learned a lesson in 2008 and are now buying farmland like crazy where ever they can.

Bottom Line

Since 2008 the World Bank estimates that the number of people who go to bed hungry each night has risen from 830 million to more than 1 billion. That is an increase almost equal to the population of the US. It also means 1 in 7 people in the globe is not getting enough food.

In the future those who own the farmland won't go hungry. Everyone else will have to pay dearly.