As the world's available farming land shrinks in the face of population growth, climate change and soil degradation, Australia's vast tracts of land are going to be increasingly important for global food security. Is the sell-off in Australia's long term interests?
Foreign interests including state-owned companies from China and the Middle East are increasingly looking to Australia to secure their food production by purchasing key agricultural assets.
The Asian Development Bank is warning the region's rural sector could be expoited by international investors as concerns about global food and fuel security intensify.
Près de 300 investisseurs étrangers cherchent à obtenir de la terre en Ethiopie. Qui sont ces nouveaux arrivants, quels sont les bénéfices pour les paysans locaux et pour l’Etat éthiopien ?
"People lose their access to land simply so that rich and powerful Cambodians and foreign investors can make profit from cash crops for export."
Nnimmo Bassey from Nigeria said that these principles legitimize a new form of colonialism with grave dangers for millions of local livelihoods and the environment.
I am worried. A consensus is emerging among international institutions about the need to guide investment in agriculture. But at the same time, many civil society groups and farmers’ organisations, including the most representative among them, denounce ‘land-grabbing’.
UNCTAD's Investment, Enterprise and Development Commission met and discussed the current land grabbing trend on 26 April 2010.
Plusieurs pays avec une forte croissance démographique cherchent à acquérir des terres agricoles hors de leurs frontières, avec en toile de fond la crise alimentaire. Cette quête conduit notamment des entreprises chinoises à s'intéresser à des terres arables au Québec.
Première destination l'Ethiopie, l’un des pays où cette question se pose avec beaucoup d’acuité. Deuxième destination la Chine qui a un grand besoin de nouvelles terres. Troisième destination Madagascar, où le projet d’achat de terre par Daewoo a été complètement abandonné.
"What they are saying is that the local people are now suffering very badly as a direct result of these foreign companies taking over."
Bill Law investigates the causes and consequences of the great global land grab. Tonight, episode one in Kenya.
