"What could the financial sector be doing to increase global food security? This is the question which drives the Euromoney Food & Finance Conference. We have brought together a group of sovereign agencies who have been mandated and funded to develop food security for their nations – they need innovative financial structures, cross-border investment advice, risk quantification, risk transfer, price and market modelling and much much more." Panel IV is on landgrabbing.

A day-long Colloquium : 11 June 2012, 9:00 to 18:00 hrs

2012 will be a big year for the study of global land grabbing. After a few years dominated by important reports from NGOs and the media, as well as initial scoping studies from some academics, the first batch of academic studies that are empirically fresh and theoretically rigorous is finally coming out.

Location: International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), Kortenaerkade 12, The Hague, Netherlands
Download the invitation and programme: http://www.tni.org/sites/www.tni.org/files/11_june_2012_colloquium_programme_final.pdf

The International Center for Development and Decent Work (ICDD) Annual Thematic Conference at the University of Kassel, Kassel, Germany, 4-6 July 2012, is on “The Food Crisis: Implications for Decent Work in Rural and Urban Areas”. There will be several panels on land grabbing and the financialisation of food and agriculture.

La Via Campesina et la Campagne mondiale pour la Réforme agraire - Jakarta, Indonésie, 9-16 juillet 2012

La Via Campesina et la Campagne mondiale pour la Réforme agraire - en appliquant la méthodologie d'un atelier- séminaire international sur la Mise en oeuvre d'une Réforme agraire au XXIème siècle - souhaiterait analyser le contexte mondial actuel, la dynamique et les demandes locales à propos de la crise de l'agriculture afin de pouvoir arriver à une vue d'ensemble claire et commune ainsi qu'à un agenda dans le but de mettre en oeuvre une réforme agraire qui devra inclure la souveraineté alimentaire, l'agro-écologie, la biodiversité et les intérêts des femmes et des jeunes. Serikat Petani Indonesia (SPI) accueillera l'atelier et le séminaire avec la participation des membres de LVC ainsi que d'autres mouvements sociaux, de chercheurs progressistes et de nos alliés.

Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific (PAN AP) partners are currently documenting the scope and impact of large-scale foreign investments in agriculture that is displacing communities in rural areas in Mindanao (Philippines), Indonesia, Sarawak (Malaysia) and other places in Asia. The outcome of this documentation will be used by local partners in their campaigning and strategising at the national level. The national strategy building is important as land deals are brokered and land laws are amended or enacted at the national level. Thus, approaches and strategies on how to create pressure points for policy makers need to be developed. At the regional level, there will be a strategy-building process where the platform is opened to other organisations from other countries. Experiences from the three focus countries will be shared as well to other communities that are facing similar situation e.g., Cambodia, Laos, Pakistan, India, etc. The regional strategy building is set to take place in Penang, Malaysia on July 19-20, 2012. Affected communities will be invited to the strategy building. It will also be opened to groups which are working on the issue and are willing to collaborate with PAN AP and its partners. Collective campaign plans at regional level are expected to emerge from this meeting, as well as exchanges of strategies on campaigning and raising awareness on land grabbing that have worked for other communities.

Agriculture Investment Summit 2012 is an event for investors and agriculture companies to learn about partnership & investment opportunities in agricultural commodities, companies and farmland in Asian regions.

The Land Deal Politics Initiative (LDPI) is organizing a second international academic workshop on ‘Global Land Grabbing’ to be held on 17-19 October 2012 at the Africana Studies Center at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA. The event will be co-organized and hosted by the Department of Development Sociology. Among the confirmed keynote speakers is the new Director-General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and Brazilian academic, José Graziano da Silva. View the call for papers here.