Green Acres

Buying farms is a new trend - - but the scale and scope is much more national and global than buying out your local neighbor down the road.  One study by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization and international NGOs found that in the five African countries of Ethiopia, Ghana, Madagascar, Mali, and Sudan, about 2.5 million hectares of agricultural land were acquired by foreign investors between 2005 and 2009.  This is equal to almost half the arable land of the United Kingdom.  One estimate by the International Food Policy Research Institute put the total figure at 30 million hectares in 2009.  Another estimate by the Oakland Institute puts the total at 50 million hectares (an area equivalent  to half of all the arable land in China).  China and South Korea have both been big buyers of "green acres" in Africa.

You can view this in two ways.  The first is that all of this is an example of the market working.  The second is that it demonstrates a somewhat chaotic attempt to scramble for key resources.  Several issues need to be watched closely.  Population increases are driving this activity and clearly this could be a long term trend.  The true constraint is land and water in the context of food.  Which (land or water) is the more limiting will be interesting to watch.  How does nationalism play into this?  How do local citizens react to their food source going to others when they themselves have their own supply problems?  The geopolitics of all this - - such as national armies providing security for vast farms operated in distance foreign lands.  Who controls food production where and why might be one of those potential flash points in distance lands.