Background document accompanying the 14 February 2014 media release issued by Tax Justice Network, GRAIN, Anywaa Survival Organisation, Forum Syd Kenya and the South Indian Coordination Committee of Farmers Movements.

African countries that missed out on Gulf cash pouring into agricultural projects elsewhere on the continent are trying to entice Arab investors with deals they say are designed to avoid problems of the past.

Global fund managers and some of the world's largest pension funds have bought more than $1.5 billion of agricultural land in Australia over the past three years.

"Instead of handing over farming land to foreign companies, our government should promote policies that sustainably increase productivity and help Liberian farmers access local markets," says Friends of the Earth Liberia.

A visit to Mozambique dispels any notion that big business is going to ‘feed Africa’. Hazel Healy reports on a land rush in full swing.

The member countries also agreed to draft a unified strategy for cooperation with other Arab countries that have agricultural land, including Sudan, Morocco and Yemen, as well as with African countries.

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has initiated a position in Archer Daniels Midland when it is anticipated that companies like ADM and Bunge will seek out targeted acquisitions of global farmland in order to both expand and diversify operations

Oxfam report says international land investors and biofuel producers have taken over land around the world that could feed nearly 1 billion people.

As the amount of investor-owned farmland grows in Saskatchewan, so do concerns about foreign ownership and loopholes in the province’s farmland ownership regulations.

The approved sale of sprawling Australian cotton farm Cubbie Station to Chinese interests has sparked a political row as Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce insists foreign ownership is not in the national interest.

Jessica Mutch spoke to Fred Pearce in London about the Crafar farm buy-up by a Chinese company and whether New Zealand should be nervous about land grabbing.

There's growing interest in who invests in Australian companies and who buys Australian land, with more discussion around the topic of global food security.

China increasingly is buying farmland and agricultural companies in South America to feed its ever-growing population.

Russia is willing to discuss leasing farm land in the Far East to Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation member countries. The Ministry for Economic Development has stated that a group of 20 projects is intended to bring in tens of billions of dollars in investments.

The Guardian (Tanzania) discusses with Stanslaus Nyembea, Programme Officer for Lawyers Environmental Action Team (LEAT), on foreign investments and land grabbing in Tanzania

Foreign investors have snapped up more than $12 billion in Australian farm land and agribusiness during the past year.

The adoption by the UN Committee on World Food Security of international guidelines to regulate land grabs has been pushed to next year

Recent steep rises in land prices worldwide, alongside rising food prices, are prompting more governments to introduce restrictions on overseas land ownership in an attempt to protect against perceived threats to domestic farming interests and food availability.

China's most powerful agricultural company, Beidahuang Group, is looking to acquire 80,000 hectares of Western Australia farmland, with several farmers on the verge of signing.

The combined force of the US based Oakland Institute's research and advocacy on African land deals and local, democratic activism in South Sudan has effectively stalled plans for the largest land deal in the area.

The buy-up of prime agricultural land by Shenhua has sparked a furious political debate in Australia

If the early reports are anything to go by, the Bangladeshi deals already incorporate many elements that suggest they are being done in a way likely to engender fierce resentment and opposition in the African countries concerned.

Ethiopia is on sale. Everybody is getting a piece of her. For next to nothing. The land vultures have been swooping down on Gambella from all parts of the world.

Lao government has approved agricultural investments worth US$1.5 billion, covering more than 300 projects, which are implemented under land concession agreements and farming contracts

Saskatchewan has some of the richest and least expensive farmland in the world, and there's a gigantic pool of global money that would like to buy up as much of it as they can.

An American university is buying a New Zealand dairy farm for more than $28 million as officials and would-be overseas investors get ready for new rules.

If the offer is successful, Singapore's Olam will either hold 100 per cent or between 50.1 per cent and 90 per cent of NZ Farming Systems Uruguay

A lawyer advising the NZ Government how to make it easier to sell assets overseas is working for the Chinese company wanting to buy the Crafar farms, the Green Party says.

Brazilian farm companies are in a race of investments with every major company making new acquisitions and major capital investments.

Wall Street financiers now interested in channeling billions of new dollars into cropland include heavy hitters like UBS, Morgan Stanley and Rabobank.