International Land Grabbing

In recent years, some food crises have threatened food security worldwide. These episodes were induced by extreme climate events occurring in periods of unprecedented worldwide pressure on agricultural land due to new bioenergy policies, changes in diets, and demographic growth. To curb the associated escalation in food prices, the governments of some major crop-producing countries have banned or limited their exports, thereby generating food insecurity in many trade-dependent nations. As a result, investors saw in agriculture new business opportunities, while some governments started to secure a more direct access to agricultural land. Therefore, public corporations, agribusiness investors, and speculators started to acquire productive and relatively cheap agricultural land, particularly in the developing world.