Over 1000, 1-percenters are meeting at Waldorf Astoria (April 23-25), for a major farmland investment event that will decide the fate of millions of Africans.
Dubbed as “the next big thing in finance” some of the largest hedge funds, private equity groups, university endowment managers, and other high rollers will meet to discuss how to continue to make money from food and water shortages. The event is organized by HighQuest Partners, a heavy hitter in the hedge fund market of big agro, bio-tech and bio-fuel companies. Entrance fee to attend is a mere $3,000.
These money managers are there because they are promised to make more than 25% return on investments in areas of the world where there exists incredible food insecurity. In 2009 only, nearly 60 million hectares of arable land – an area the size of France – was purchased or leased, 70 percent of it in Africa. It’s impossible to acquire that much of land without the continued taking of land previously held by small indigenous farmers. That number has only been increasing as more and more land has been leased off to companies and governments in Africa – by corrupt dictators, that have no moral qualms about displacing millions from their ancestral lands. On their website, HighQuest partners brag about representing $3.5 trillion in aggregated institutional assets and 25 million acres under cultivation in 2011 alone. This year they are expecting to double. BTW 25 million acres is the size of Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts combined together, OR 11 times the size of Yellowstone National Park.
Please join in solidarity with food justice activists, Environmental ORGs, OWS groups, African students and communities in exposing these cabal of evil doers -that their “next big thing in finance” is nothing more than the next financial bubble with far more ill-consequences for humanity and the planet.

Day of Action: April 24 2012
Where: The Waldorf-Astoria
301 Park Avenue. NY, NY
10:30am

PROTEST THE SELLING OF AFRICA, THROUGH THE LAND GRAB DEALINGS TAKING PLACE WITHIN THE WALDORF ASTORIA
WHO: Dubbed as “the next big thing in finance” Over 1000 aggressively managed hedge funds, private equity groups, university endowment managers, and other high rolling 1 percenters will meet to discuss how to continue to make money from food and water shortages.
WHERE: THE WALDORF ASTORIA 301 PARK AVENUE, NEW YORK CITY, NY

Participez à notre apéro thématique sur l’accaparement des terres !
Mardi 24 avril 2012 • 19h à 21h • Mains d’œuvres – 1 rue Charles Garnier – Saint Ouen
A cette occasion, nous recevrons deux associations pour nous introduire au débat :
• AGter (Association pour l’Amélioration de la Gouvernance de la Terre, de l’Eau et des Ressources Naturelles) représenté par Mathieu Perdriault
• SHERPA (Protéger et défendre les populations victimes de crimes économiques) représenté par Rachel Leenhardt
Attention, afin de préserver la convivialité des tables rondes, les places sont limitées : Pré-inscriptions sur [email protected] ou par téléphone au 01 48 78 33 26

Global AgInvesting 2012 is produced by global agribusiness consultancy, HighQuest Partners, and will provide attendees with a picture of the agriculture investing landscape and a clear idea of where the real money is moving in the space. Global AgInvesting will explain the myriad of variables for positively directing investments in agriculture, such as a growing world population, improving diets in the developing world, and new demand for biomass feed stocks, and bring them into perspective for evaluation by attendees.

World Bank Headquarters, Washington DC, 23-26 April 2012
The Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty each year brings together representatives from governments, civil society, academia, the private sector and the development community to discuss issues of concern to land practitioners and policymakers worldwide.

Maison des Arts et Café du Grütli, Rue du Général Dufour 16, 1204 Genève
19h30: En collaboration avec Food First Information and Action Netword Suisse (FIAN), une discussion avec les intervenants suivants: • Alexis Marant, réalisateur • Sjoerd Wartena, Président à Terre de Liens • J. Coast Sullenger, Directeur, GAIA Capital Advisor • Sandra Ratjen, membre du Comité FIAN Suisse • Marylaure Crettaz Corredor, Agriculture & Rural Development Network, Global Food Security, DDC
21h00: Documentaire "Planète à vendre", Alexis Marant / France / 2010 / 90' / CAPA - ARTE / Ce documentaire montre la folle course entamée par les pays riches et émergents il y a trois ans pour la mainmise sur les terres arables dans les pays du Sud

Rural women's rights to access and control over land and resources are hampered by aggressive corporate control and gender disparities. The session is an opportunity for sharing of struggles, lessons and key strategies from women's movements who resisted corporate control and asserted their rights to their land, resources and livelihood.

La Via Campesina calls on all of its members and allies, fisher-folk movements, agricultural workers organizations, students and environmental groups, women organizations and social justice movements to organize actions around the world on April 17 in order to display massive popular resistance to land grabbing and highlight the struggle against corporate control over land and natural resources.

A l’occasion de la journée internationale des luttes paysannes, le Collectif français contre les accaparements de terres a le plaisir de vous convier à une conférence-débat sur le thème : LES ACCAPAREMENTS DE TERRES - EVOLUTIONS DU PHENOMENE ET MOBILISATIONS DES MOUVEMENTS SOCIAUX de 20:00 à 23:00, Espace FIAP Jean Monnet 30 Rue Cabanis, 75014 Paris (métro Glacière, ligne 6, ou Mouton-Duvernet, ligne 4)

Workshop organized by Cambodia Research Group, VU University Amsterdam
Phnom Penh, 4-5 April 2012
Guidelines for submission of papers and more information: http://www.fsw.vu.nl/en/Images/CallforPapersLandrush%26DemocracyApril2012_tcm31-253868.pdf