Corporate-backed farming groups from North America and the UK have emerged as key players in the nation’s farmland market in the past year.

The tech behemoth is betting that planting millions of eucalyptus trees in Brazil will be the path to a greener future. Some ecologists and local residents are far less sure.

The bigger question—one Tasmania must answer soon—is how much of its food-bowl can be outsourced to balance sheets before community cohesion snaps.

Under the guise of ‘conflict mediation’ and community empowerment, the work of certain corporate NGOs results in communities continuing without access to and control over their lands, and in strengthening destructive production models.

The Schmidt Agricola family business is planning a 10,000-hectare cocoa farm in the Brazilian state of Bahia, where similar super-sized cocoa farms are also under development in partnership with large cocoa companies like Cargill and Barry Callebaut.

Hubert Fabri and Vincent Bolloré own plantations accused of land appropriation and labor abuses. Their company says it has taken steps to improve matters, but a trip to West Africa shows sexual coercion claims remain widespread.

The investment arm of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has bought a fourth major Aussie cropping aggregation.

The National Sugar Development Council (NSDC) and Chinese conglomerate, SINOMACH have agreed to jointly develop a large-scale sugarcane cultivation and processing project in Nigeria.

Rusting pipes in a barren field and unpaid workers are what remain after a U.S. company promised to turn a huge piece of land in Senegal — about twice the size of Paris — into an agricultural project and create thousands of jobs.

Dama Jean Dare Ratolonjanahary, community activist and co-founder of the Comite de Defense des Terres, told New Lines that, “Carbon credits are an excuse to continue destroying nature in exchange for money”.

Hundreds of Indigenous people and civil society groups in Indonesia are demanding an end to government projects that have seized their lands, fueled violence, and stripped them of their rights.

New Agriculture manages the Lawson Grains portfolio on behalf of its investor, Canadian pension fund Alberta Investment Management Corporation, or AIMCo.

The Italian multinational Tozzi Green has begun planting trees on land that local residents claim was stolen from them

The Utah-based Mormon Church has added a large-scale dryland cropping operation in the renowned Golden Triangle region of northern New South Wales to its growing Australian agricultural portfolio.

Over 250 indigenous peoples, local communities and various civil society organizations from all over Indonesia announced the Merauke Declaration on March 11-14, 2025 in Merauke, South Papua, rejecting various National Strategic Projects (PSN) throughout Indonesia.

A global commodities trader and carbon player, part-owned by funds giant Brookfield, is quitting a 450,000-hectare Northern Territory cattle station where it hoped to set up an offset scheme, amid confusion and delays over new carbon rules.

The Indonesian government took over management of palm oil plantations seized from a corporation facing a graft probe, under an initiative that may be extended to other troubled commodity-production sites.

The famed Consolidated Pastoral Company, now owned by English financier Guy Hands, has bought Australia’s biggest sheep station Rawlinna after it was put on the block when tycoon Andrew Forrest last year dumped plans to buy it for a renewable energy project.

Since 2021, Socapalm – majority-owned by Socfinaf, a Luxembourg holding itself part owned by the Bolloré Group – has been replanting palms to rejuvenate its plantation at Edéa, in Cameroon, creating tremendous difficulty for neighbouring villagers.

Depuis 2021, la Socapalm – qui est détenue majoritairement par la Socfinaf, une holding luxembourgeoise détenue en partie par le groupe Bolloré – replante des palmiers pour rajeunir sa plantation à Edéa, au Cameroun, créant d'énormes difficultés pour les communautés riveraines.

Fish farming giant Mowi has bought two uninhabited islands off Scotland's west coast for the siting of new salmon farms.

How thousands of Indonesian soldiers are forcing through a vast agricultural project in indigenous lands and forests

A disturbing alliance between a palm oil company, district officials, and a college school is actively seizing land from farming communities in Buvuma district for their own profit

As 2024 drew to a close, the International Land Coalition widely circulated a new report. The report argues that data supplied by ILC partners, combined with improved land rights, can turn today's massive land grab for carbon offset projects into a win-win situation. This is delusional and wrong.

"Whether it is a farmer or an investor, they are now viewing land as an asset class to get rich off of speculation, not the productive capability of that land."

What can possibly be wrong about planting trees? This investigation digs deeper into a conflict unfolding in southern Madagascar, between the local community and an Italian multinational. As similar green projects multiply, this case highlights a critical challenge.

The Indonesian Ministry of Investment is planning to transform the Food Estate in Merauke, South Papua, into an integrated sugar industry hub.

Indonesia's new president is literally flooding Papua with new military troops to provide security at a 2 million-hectare food plantation being carved out of jungle outside of Merauke.

In addition to the greenfield port north of Port Sudan, the project would have included a 400,000-acre agricultural development in the Nile region, hundreds of miles of new roadways, a large free trade zone

A trio of dairy farms spanning a combined 570 hectares in the state’s north have been listed for sale after more than a decade in the hands of Swedish owners.