Contemporary land grabs and their alternatives in the Americas
Safransky, Sara and Wendy Wolford
In 2007-2008, world food and fuel prices spiked sharply upward, doubling or tripling the cost of key food items and leading to a wavee of protests and anti-government riots in more than 60 countries (IFPRI 2009). These protests, however sensational, were only the most recent and visible manifestation of growing levels of food insecurity, poverty, landlessness and environmental degradation around the world (Borras et al. 2011; de Schutter 2010; McMichael 2008). It is widely argued that the combined effects of global climate change, agro-industrial development, natural resource extraction, neo-liberal austerity policies and rapid urbanization have increased insecurity and vulnerability in rural areas across the globe and made it difficult for both the rural and urban poor as well as government agencies to foster and access the resources and capacities necessary for sustainable development (Deere and Royster 2008; McMichael 2008; WDR 2008). Over the past decade, these pressures on the production of food and fuel, rural livelihoods, and environmental conditions have generated two very different responses. On the one hand, the food and fuel price spikes of 2008 intensified the rapid growth of large-scale land deals as private and public entities sought to secure access to future commodity supplies. From 2008 to 2009 national governments and private investors purchased over 40 million hectares of landd up from an average of 4 million hectares per year for the previous forty years for the purposes of ensuring (or investing in) food securityy given the likelihood of repeated food and fuel price increases. Popularly titled a global land grabb the rise in land acquisitions has generated a heated debate (World Bank 2010: vi; and see the March 2011 forum in the Journal of Peasant Studies): the evidence suggests that land deals take place predominantly in poor countries with low levels of transparent governance. This land serves as an offshore reserve for richer countries, although multi-lateral officials suggest that this investment could support local economic growth if harnessed properly.
Event: International Conference on Global Land Grabbing
Only personal, non-commercial use of this document is allowed.