“We will put an end to the possibility for foreigners to acquire farmland. With this land law, it is over, it is no more,” says Hungary's Prime Minister.

Currently reserved for Hungarians, farmlands will be available for purchase by foreigners from 2014. But as this EU imposed deadline looms, PM Viktor Orbán government is doing all it can to delay it. Meanwhile small farmers are battling with wealthy candidates, often close to sources of political power, for the most attractive lots.

Today's neocolonials are no longer content monopolising the output of the lands; they want the source of the produce, too — the land itself and the accompanying water supply.

Olam is working closely with the Government of Gabon where it has developed the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil New Planting Procedure in Africa.

Argentinian Agriculture Minister Norberto Yauhar met last week with Saudi Ambassador Turki M.A. Al Madi to discuss investments that the Kingdom is considering in Argentina, particularly in San Luis.

Amid warnings that land deals are undermining food security, the head of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has compared "land grabs" in Africa to the "wild west", saying a "sheriff" is needed to restore the rule of law.

Australia risks losing an opportunity to become a farmyard for Asia, as growing unease over foreigners buying rural land threatens to provoke protectionist policies.

Indian companies which invested in controversial deals involving hundreds of thousands of acres of land in Ethiopia have found themselves out of their depth in a fast-growing African economy.

"It seems incongruous that Herakles Farms claims it is trying to improve the lives of local people but then there is scarcely any consultation with those same people over what is to be done with the land they depend on for their livelihoods, nor any serious acknowledgment of the risks posed to local environments and the global climate," writes Kumi Naidoo

Current rush of foreign investment into Burma’s agricultural and natural resource sectors, combined with what the report calls an “almost universal tenure insecurity in both rural and urban areas,” will increase landlessness

A growing worldwide land rush is having a negative impact on the local and indigenous people says José Graziano da Silva, director-general of the FAO to conference at Cornell University.

Green Scenery challenges all political parties to take a position on large scale land acquisitions of foreign direct investors in agriculture for the 2012 election.