There
was a time when 'land' used to refer to those parts of our habitat
that were cultivated for food, grazed by animals for hide, wool,
meat, milk and fertilisation, forests from which timber, firewood and
food were collected and where communities lived sharing the common
wealth. Now, as with everything else one can imagine, land is just
another commodity to be bought and sold at the best possible price,
to be acquired whatever the consequences for long-term incumbents. As
land is a commodity so too is everything it can offer – food, fuel,
minerals and water – with the added bonus of investment and
speculation.
The
phenomenon of 'land-grab', well known now, was originally seen as a
way for food insecure and rich countries such as Saudi Arabia and
China to gain access to foreign farmland in order to meet the food
needs of their own populations. Then came the big push for biofuels
following targets agreed by governments at a succession of meetings
on climate change. In a recent report from Worldwatch Institute rural
populations have been pushed off prime land in 25 sub-Saharan
countries for the production of biofuel crops for foreign nations. In
other examples food is grown on an industrial scale solely for
export, disenfranchising local populations and turning them into wage
labourers if they are lucky and forcing them into urban areas and
likely penury if they are not.
The
most exciting opportunity now for big money seeking even bigger money
is that of investment and speculation in both food and land. Pension
schemes, universities, bankers and large investors are jostling to
invest in land for speculation. According to one spokesperson for a
large company fund it doesn't matter if nothing is grown for ten
years, you'll still 'turn a good profit.' Pension funds globally run
to around $23 trillion. Their investment in land and agriculture is
relatively recent but growing fast and admitted by some investment
bankers and civil society organisations to be a major cause of rising
food prices globally.
At
the World Social Forum in Dakar, Senegal an appeal
against land-grabbing was launched. By the following September over 650
organisations had endorsed it. Estimates of land the size of western
Europe (227 million hectares) have been sold, leased or licensed in
the last decade. One Oxfam case study found at least 22,500 people
lost both homes and land in Uganda when they were evicted in favour
of a British company, the New Forest Company. There were conflicting
versions from the company and the evicted but a high court order to
restrain evictions was sidestepped and the company put the
responsibility onto the Ugandan National Forest Authority. There are
numerous accounts of promised benefits to displaced persons and
communities not materialising even after several years of waiting.
Efforts to draw up and implement regulations for the protection of
local populations, even voluntary ones, have been less than robust.
The
countries of Africa have been a major target for land-grab with
agriculture on an industrial scale reaping substantial profits for
investors. Corporate agriculture, however, is not about food
production or satisfying the needs of the undernourished or downright
starving but about producing profit. How long can it be at this rate
before its limits are reached – disenfranchised millions starved to
death in favour of a tidy accumulation for the few? A lengthy study
by the Oakland Institute in Tanzania, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Mali,
Mozambique, Zambia and South Sudan looked at the viability of
industrial scale farming compared with small family farms. What they
found was that where 100,000 hectares of plantations would employ
1,000 workers traditional agriculture of the same area would sustain
50,000 families, that is between 200-250,000 people. In addition a
2009 UN report concluded that industrial agriculture is responsible
in large part for climate change, species extinction, poisoning of
the environment, water shortage, disease and poverty.
This
land is our land. Reclaiming the commons for the peoples of the world
is a necessary step in the pursuit of socialism. Join us for a revolution.
JS
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