Since Jane Mendillo took over the endowment in July 2008, Harvard’s holdings of forests, farms and other natural resources in Brazil as well as in New Zealand and Romania have grown to about 10 percent of the portfolio -- more than $3 billion -- and she wants to add more.

Countries with poor protection of land rights are magnets for land deals – most of which are to grow crops that can be used for biofuels – which means that many land deals for biofuel production are ‘land grabs’, concluded without the consent of affected communities.

The Ethiopian government says that it will no longer impose export quotas on commercial farm outputs and processed goods as a part of its commitment for the new partnership introduced by G-8 countries that focuses on facilitating private sector investment in African agriculture.

UAE seeks to have Argentina join the ranks of other world countries such as India, USA, Canada and Brazil in becoming a primary supplier of food to the country.

The public debate about the ethics of investing in farmland is being ignored by serious investors who seem to have had no qualms about buying up large tracts of land in Africa reports the Financial Times.

Cartogram of land grabs led by foreign investors after 2006

“We need to be growing at the rate of 10,000 hectares a year to be economically viable, which is not happening,” says Sime Darby official. “Securing land has been a gruelling process.”

Social organisations are shocked and offended by a Wall Street Journal article written by the FAO Director General and EBRD President that calls on governments to embrace corporations as the main engine for global food production.

High temperatures have combined with the worst drought in half a century to wreak havoc on American farms and ranches. Some 80 percent of U.S. farm and pasture land experienced drought.

"In the agri-business value chain, there are various investment opportunities for institutional investors that go beyond the heavily criticised investment strategies of land grab and commodity speculation."

Rising populations and the development of biofuels are increasing demand for arable land all over the world, and Arrianna Marie Conerly Coleman says that small farmers are the first to suffer.

Investments in industrial scale agriculture must balanced by equitable flow of benefits to smallholder farmers