The estimate used by the Prime Minister John Key that less than 1 percent of New Zealand farmland is foreign-owned is far below the mark according to an analysis of Overseas Investment Office decisions carried out by CTU Economist, Bill Rosenberg.
Released on the eve of the World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty in Washington DC, April 23-26, 2012, two new films reveal widespread violations of people's rights and environmental destruction from land grabbing in Africa.
On the International Day of Peasant Struggle, Honduran peasants started massive land occupations, with about 3000 farm families occupying more than 12,000 ha in at least six departments.
The alternative investment company, with $5bn of interests, revealed the appointment of seven managers, in countries including Australia, Brazil, and Romania, in a drive to expand in agriculture.
India’s Tata Group is interested to invest in east African farming in order to export agricultural products back to India, where it anticipates a local food supply shortage over the next decades.
Preparation to counter the gathering of 1,000 African Land Buyers who paid an entrance fee of 3,000 dollar at Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan, New York for their conference from April 23 to April 25 is underway.
After a year-long legal battle, China will be allowed to buy farmland in new Zealand. Some experts say these purchases are less about business and more about rich countries securing their own food supply at the expense of less well off nations.
In the Philippines, Akbayan Party-list Representatives Arlene “Kaka” Bag-ao and Walden Bello are pushing for a bill that regulates large scale foreign investments on land.
US groups call on Harvard to reconsider its institutional participation in agricultural land investments and to look for more just and sustainable ways to support its educational and research missions.
Landgrab celebrated on this April 24th at the Waldorf Astoria. We must move faster & with force - not get trapped by systematic 1%er crimes like the Global Ag.
Presentations by Antonio Tricarico of CRBM (financialisation of nature in general) and Devlin Kuyek of GRAIN (land grabbing as specific sector / example)
A policy paper will next week be presented to the annual World Bank conference on land and poverty in Washington DC in the United States, which focuses on the confrontation between peasant producers and investors in the Mozambican province of Zambezia.