Earth Equity News

Emerging Nations Exporting Farmland to Feed Global Demand. By Tom Wright and Patrick Barta, WSJournal, July 11, 2008, subscription. "Emerging nations are trying to cash in on the global food crisis by getting big importers of crops to effectively lease their farmlands -- a new trend that is already sparking complaints from farmers in some countries who are concerned about their own food supplies. The latest example: a plan by the Indonesian government to develop a Connecticut-sized farming tract on the remote province of Papua to grow rice, sugar cane and soybeans. Promoters of the project have met with Saudi investors in the hopes of receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in return for dedicating part of the crops to the Middle East nation. Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations are scouring the globe for agricultural investments to lock in supply of key crops like wheat, corn and rice, much as countries like China have invested billions to secure a steady stream of oil... Investors from China, which imports huge amounts of soybeans and crude palm oil, are purchasing farm land in Africa and Southeast Asia. South Korea, too, is considering investing in a 270,000-hectare farm project in eastern Mongolia. As world food prices have risen, Saudi Arabia's food import bill has grown by an average 19% annually over the past four years to $12 billion in 2007, making it the Middle East's largest food importer."