Today it emerged that world leaders are to discuss what is being described as “land grabbing” or “neo-colonialism” at the G8 meeting next week. A spokesman for Japan’s ministry of foreign affairs confirmed that it would raise the issue: “We feel there should be a code of conduct for investment in farmland that will be a win-win situation for both producing and consuming countries,” he said.
Olivier De Schutter, special envoy for food at the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said: “[The trend] is accelerating quickly. All countries observe each other and when one sees others buying land it does the same.”
Some of the largest deals include South Korea’s acquisition of 700,000ha in Sudan, and Saudi Arabia’s purchase of 500,000ha in Tanzania. The Democratic Republic of the Congo expects to shortly conclude an 8m-hectare deal with a group of South African businesses to grow maize and soya beans as well as poultry and dairy farming.
Other countries that have acquired land in the last year include the Gulf states, Sweden, China and Libya. Those targeted include not only fertile countries such as Brazil, Russia and Ukraine, but also poor countries like Cameroon, Ethiopia, Madagascar, and Zambia.
De Schutter said that after the food crisis of 2008, many countries found food imports hit their balance of payments, “so now they want to insure themselves”.
Continue Reading Fears For The World’s Poor Countries as The Rich Grab Land to Grow Food
http://www.medicalecology.org/pdf/presentation/VF-How_to_proceed.pdf
Carbon + farmland + ted turner produced this insane piece of work….It goes well with the Rockefeller seed bank. Technology to live on Mars or technology to live on earth once it becomes like Mars or in Cities once all the land is wilderness. Or just a hoax explanation of how people will survive without farmland.
@Ed et al.
Yes, I can see a day where it will be more profitable to grow large Fir trees on farm land with the Carbon credit scheme in place. Especially with supranational bodies stipulating carbon ceilings for each nation and territory, there will be no choice but to grow big CO2 sucking trees to comply with mandates.
I agree here that one major goal is profits, but the United Nations Agenda 21 and other relevant plans clearly and most importantly state the goals are regional population control.
What’s so unfortunate in all of this is that there is such a large population of GAIA idolizing left wing folks who have bought into the Club of Rome’s new dialectic of Humanity vs. the Planet that I don’t see how we change this trajectory. The Al Gore followers simply cannot be reached any more with this type of discussion.
Al Gore sets a dangerous precident with GAIA. To them god flows through everything and everything is god. They may choose not to desecrate a sacred tomatoe and eat Al Gore instead.
didn’t know where to post this, Catherine – maybe you would consider posting it in your blog?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/magazine/05allen-t.html?_r=1&em
Guy, nice find. Thanks for posting that. Uplifting reading among all the gloomy economic reading I do 🙂
They bee pushing neo-feudalism on the public, that’s why you’re seeing so much propaganda on local farming. Gotta bee reducing our global footprint… and when THEY say “footprint” they are not speaking in figurative terms. They mean to reduce the number of our feet walking on this planet because they simply don’t need so many of us anymore and because they want to increase their leverage of control over us.
Sorry to burst bubbles, but time to see reality as it is.
Bert:
Global capitalism/empire is running into the reality that it cannot expand infinitely on the same trajectory. On some fronts, reality is catching up to the players. Unfortunately many are not ready to get rid of their paternalistic meglomania and are not willing to give up the ego which tells them that they must be at the helm(elitism). This is why I don’t think the correct use of energy is poo-pooing the issues that have been brought up as to the limits of our planet’s ecosystem versus the way that the dominant economic paradigm operates(infinite growth/unbridled expansion). The issue as I see it is that because of the unprecedented power centralized in certain sectors, brought about by said economic paradigm – there is a major danger of these issues being co-opted and setup in ways where these power players are in on the ground floor(like Goldman Sachs on the ground floor of cap and trade). Since they have the networks, power and resources at their disposal and the “rest of us” do not have such power in our community’s hands, it is obvious that we are ill prepared for a self-determined and sovereign position within all of this. The fact that we are seeing more articles about local farming, etc. is not necessarily a top down propaganda campaign to push an agenda – it is more so the powers that be trying to perhaps “co-opt” something that could be good as the “next big thing.” They can and WILL find a way to co-opt it and bring it under their watchful eye – and that is why this time is crucial. If we understood the way these things work, we could work to insulate these community efforts from being co-opted. “THEY” are not all powerful and I have found that the more we buy into that, the more powerless we become and the more power – real and imagined we give to “them.”
It is up to all of us now to be trying to organize with our fellow community citizens so that we are more self-reliant and self-determined. We can NEVER expect the “powers that be” to hand us freedom.