Swedish pensions money is threatening the livelihoods of small farming communities in Brazil and risk speeding up the devastation of the rainforest.

The slaughter of people defending their land or environment continued unabated in 2017, with new research showing almost four people a week were killed worldwide in struggles against mines, plantations, poachers and infrastructure projects.

A worrying number of land grabs in developing countries involve European companies or are backed by European money – from banks, equity and pension funds, for instance.

Australian farmers aren’t the only ones cheering the rocketing price of almonds and beef from the simmering trade tensions between the US and China – a cohort of fund managers is also in the money.

New investigation by Global Witness uncovers more than 300 banks and investors back six of the world’s most harmful agribusinesses to the tune of $44bn.

The idea of combining the greed of investors with the fight against hunger as a mutually beneficial business venture has failed miserably

Global Witness exposes how more than 300 banks and investors back six of the world’s most harmful agribusinesses to the tune of $44bn

"There is no limit to the scale we can achieve" says Farmland Partners CEO, as his company plans to branch out from US into Australia and New Zealand.

The South African Government Employees Pension Fund and the country's Public Investment Corporation are invested in a Congolese palm oil business linked to past human rights abuses and land expropriation.

A closer look at Qatar’s successful bid for the 2022 FIFA World Cup and the relationship between sports investments by oil-rich nations and acquisitions by their sovereign wealth funds.

Agilis is one of the three multinational companies that have been implicated in the land grabbing scandal which has rendered thousands of smallholder farmers homeless in the Kiryandongo district, Uganda.

In recent times the practice of land grabbing (which is intrinsically tied with water grabbing) has increased.

Capital flows into Africa, include farmland acquisitions by foreign investors, rose 16 percent in 2008 to a record $62 billion even as FDI that year fell 20 percent worldwide

Describing itself as a consultant and “master distributor” of products designed “to bring working capital to a variety of projects” – including upgrading farmland overseas and forestry –Intelligent Partnership published a 76 page report on the alternatives sector this week.

"It's very, very cheap, it's incredibly fertile, and it hasn't been overexploited. And if you take in some expertise and some machinery and some fertilizer, you should make a lot of money," says investment guru Jim Rogers of Africa's farmlands

Money from pension funds has fuelled the financial sector's massive move into farmland investing over the past decade. The number of pension funds involved in farmland investment and the amount of money they are deploying into it is increasing, under the radar.

A major loan was approved this week for an industrial food producer operating in Brazil, despite concerns that the money would ultimately fund activities that contribute to deforestation.

The creation this week of the 'Save our Farms' campaign to block foreign ownership of New Zealand farm land has fired up a debate that needs to be had.

The British government is ramping up its policy to divert taxpayers’ money into private hands and plantation companies like Feronia – and away from the world’s poorest people, warns Labour’s Dan Carden.

Despite all the hype around Chinese investment in the Australian dairy sector, one Chinese investor who bought a dairy farm five years ago has lost money and will not buy again.

Last week, bids closed for an 83% stake in Fonterra's biggest supplier, Dairy Holdings, which oversees 72 South Island farms. Bidders reportedly include Chinese dairy giant Bright Dairy, a pastoral fund owned by Australian investment bank Macquarie Group, British private equity firm Terra Firma. US private equity firm Carlyle Group and the Harvard Endowment Fund.

So many Wall Street-types crammed the Waldorf Astoria in New York City last week for a global farmland and agribusiness conference that hosts warned the crowd of 600 not to block the fire exits.

At a week-long camp held in Kassanda district, members of the informal Alliance for victim communities of irresponsible land investments have resolved to use any available opportunity at their disposal to re-build a new life.

This week members of the Private Sector Mechanism (PSM) were at the UN FAO Head Quarters in Rome to give their views on how new Principles on Responsible Agricultural Investment can be used to respond to the urgent need to increase global investment in farm production.

Bonnefield Financial, a farmland investment company based in Ottawa, announced this week that it has acquired about 6,500 acres of lush Dufferin County potato fields in what it called one of the largest farmland transactions in Canadian history.

Last week, Uganda received a 35 man business delegation from India interested in the country’s agribusiness potential and boosting its exploits. Mr Ramakrishna Karuturi, the leader of the delegation, said the team intends to invest up to $2 billion in agribusiness pending the issue of investment licences.

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.

Wall Street remains enamored with US and international farmland, speakers at a Farm Foundation meeting in Louisville said last week.

De Jager is worried about Libya’s record in enforcing contracts with foreign companies, and the lack of social support networks. “There’s a lot of money to be made for someone with balls,” he says.

In the past week, the alleged claim by Egypt’s Agriculture minister Amin Abaza that Uganda offered his country over 2 million acres of fertile land to produce wheat to feed the Arab nation’s 81 million people has rattled Ugandans.