Farmland and forestry will outperform the average of all global assets long-term, according to Jeremy Grantham, chief investment strategist for Boston-based Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo & Co.

Two issues are bound to feature in New Zealand Trade Minister Tim Groser's talks in Beijing next week: New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra’s market power in the China domestic market and Chinese investment intentions within New Zealand.

Investors are pouring into farmland in the US and parts of Europe, Latin America and Africa as global food prices soar.

To attract foreign capital into the agricultural sector, but still maintain control of the amount of land held by overseas interests, the Government is considering establishing a new administrative path towards the granting of land sale to foreigners.

Jim Rogers, the co-founder with George Soros of the Quantum hedge fund, is particularly bullish about agriculture saying that shortages in a range of agricultural products will produce strong prices not only in those commodities but also in farm land.

The Key campaigner of Green Advocates, Cllr. Alfred Brownell has threatened a lawsuit against the government for allowing Sime Darby, an oil palm production company to operate in Cape Mount and Bomi Counties in violation of the citizens’ rights under the constitution of Liberia.

AgriSol Energy LLC, and its joint venture partner in Tanzania will invest more than $100 million over the next 10 years to develop a large-scale commercial farming project.

The report of the Potsdam Spring Dialogues 2011 on "Land Policy: A Key Factor in Combating Hunger - The Role of African Regional Organisations" held on 15-16 April 2011 in Germany has just been released.

AIM Investments is investing $1m into Farm Lands of Guinea which, in turn, will invest $500,000 into AIM. FLG has prepaid 99 year leases on over 100,000 hectares of arable land in Guinea.

The drought and famine in East Africa is throwing up some uncomfortable questions for the model of large scale agro-investment in a poor country for export.

Restrictive legislation on the selling of land will continue to be null and void so long as foreigners can rent farm land -- the ‘leasing loophole’.

The project ‘Large-scale land acquisition and sustainable development’ calls for abstracts for a special issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics.