Olivier de Schutter

Growing food in foreign lands has a long history. But the 21st century version of outsourced agriculture presages something fundamentally new.

The Federal Minister of Investment in Pakistan, Waqar Ahmed Khan, said this week that the government plans to sell or lease 1 million acres of farmland to foreign investors, primarily from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries. Although the news has yet to gain much coverage, if carried out it could punctuate growing unrest and frustration, given Pakistan’s limited amount of arable land and population of more than 170 million.

L’organisation béninoise SYNERGIE PAYSANNE avec le concours de son partenaire, le Comité Catholique contre la Faim et pour le Développement, a réalisé, au Bénin, une enquête intitulée « Terre à vendre ».

The UN’s food security expert, Olivier de Schutter, has called for a “code of conduct” to regulate the purchase of swathes of farmland across Africa, Asia and Latin America by Gulf states and private companies pursuing agribusiness.

All hedge funds that trade in food commodities should be required to register, the UN’s expert on the right to food Olivier De Schutter told the Press on Monday. Index derivatives should be prohibited and only “useful trading… hedging not speculation” should be allowed, in order to protect the poor and hungry from the market.

Après avoir provoqué la crise financière, les fonds spéculatifs commencent à s’intéresser au foncier.

Dans un entretien à Mediapart, Olivier de Schutter, rapporteur spécial des Nations unies pour le droit à l’alimentation, successeur de Jean Ziegler à ce poste depuis mai 2008, analyse avec précision ce phénomène en forte accélération d’«accaparement des terres».

Such blockbuster deals neglect to take into consideration the true interests of the farmers