Globalizing Farm Land
An interesting side effect of the “food crisis” (I’m still not sure I like that name) is that the hunt is on for agricultural land outside the nation state. The New Zealand dairy cooperative is looking to rent or buy land in, say, Brazil. The Chinese are looking for farm land in Africa and South America. And American farmers are renting land near where I live in Guanajuato, Mexico. They want reliable labor but it is still a case of the globalization of land.
I haven’t figured out where I stand on this yet, though I know which way I lean. Self sufficiency in food is a hopeless goal for most countries. The Romans couldn’t do it. The Dutch became the most prosperous country in seventeenth century Europe partly by abandoning that goal. The British haven’t been able to do it in a couple of centuries and haven’t a prayer of doing it now.
Given that, this is a trend that is not going to disappear. It’s also not so different from factories on foreign soil. It’s just that the area is much larger. And given what we’ve learned about how to farm more efficiently, this could boost world food production enormously.
In any case, it’s not hard to predict that who has access to agricultural land and how that maps on to political boundaries is going to be a hot topic in the next few years.
Nice post Rachel. Even i am not sure where i stand. However, i think foreign ownership of agriculture may enable the transfusion of modern agricultural practices and as you say increase production of food dramatically. That may help with the food crisis as you say. Not sure the farm lobbies in the various countries to ever let this happen on a scale that maybe required. It sure is an interesting possibility.
Not sure where I stand on this either. But let’s look at the examples here.
I’ve already commented a bit on the New Zealand dairy industry.
“China has about 40 per cent of the world’s farmers but just 9 per cent of the world’s arable land. Some Chinese scholars argue that domestic agricultural companies must expand overseas if China is to guarantee its food security and reduce its exposure to global market fluctuations.”
Africa has more arable land than China?????? I can’t help but think it’s a kind of agricultural, economic “colonialism’ :-D but that would make me a predictable liberal.
And the American example, the industry is going to the source of labor. We produce a glut of food in the States, that doesn’t mean there isn’t malnutrition and hunger here.
Large farms, industrialized farms, sure, they mean a larger middle that has enough to eat. And that’s a good thing. I know how much South Korea has changed during my parent’s lifetime and my lifetime. It went from a feudal agricultural society with indentured peasants to a society with a large middle class. And larger scale farming was a part of that transition.
But I take issue with conflating a middle class person’s desire to have a steak and a cup of milk into a “food crisis” or “global food shortage”.
I’m thinking about the New Zealand dairy article again. It begins by describing protests triggered by rising “global food costs” I mean people aren’t protesting because of the cost of filet mignon and heirloom tomatoes. Lack of milk in China isn’t a sign that “the world” needs to increase food production.
I don’t understand how corporate business factors that inhibit distributing milk to largely lactose intolerant populations have anything to do with which models of agriculture are more productive or even better. (Or why so many articles present either or examples and arguments). This is more about current business models and economics.
The idea that larger farms will solve food scarcity issues for those at the bottom because they can produce more food is amusing. “larger farms mean more investor interest because of greater productivity (higher profits)” and if we have more food in “the world” these investors will suddenly begin acting like Robin Hood?