Land Grabs in Poor Countries Set to Increase

[defendandprotect]

AGRICULTURE-AFRICA
Land Grabs in Poor Countries Set to Increase
By Hilaire Avril

PARIS, Sep 8, 2010 (IPS) - After weeks of rumours sparked by the leaking of a draft World Bank position paper on so-called land grabs in poor countries, the international financial institution has officially released its report on the surge in farmland purchases and leasing which have elicited controversy for over two years.

Acquisitions of vast tracts of fertile land in Africa by foreign governments and companies eager to secure affordable food resources in highly volatile commodity markets stirred public attention when the South Korean company Daewoo bought more than a million hectares of farmland in the east African island state Madagascar.

The World Bank report, titled "Rising Global Interest in Farmland. Can It Yield Sustainable and Equitable Benefits?" and released on Sep 8, cautions that "an astonishing lack of awareness of what is happening on the ground" exists -- even by the public sector institutions mandated to control this phenomenon.


http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52762


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Behind all great wealth is great crime --

[Hannah Bell]

1. kr. land in developed countries = too "valuable" for farmland, so we have to steal

it from undeveloped countries.

this is capitalism.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

2. Bend over?

[old mark]

3. Not really a poor country, but - one of the largest land owners in Argentina is.....

Sylvester Stallone, Jane Fonda, Ted Turner, many other "stars" from the US...they bought huge acerage when the economy in Argentina was bad, and now prices are very high, with large areas of the grazing/farming land on estancias in American ownership.

Link:http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/10/05/going.green.tompkins.biodiversity/



mark