Brigade logo
Take me to Brigade

A pledge from the campaign to



25 pledged
75 more needed

Pledge to

Educate myself and my friends on the pros and cons of Land grabbing in relation to long - term food

This pledge closed over 2 years ago

How this will help

Here's to put long term food security concerns into perspective. Thank you for sparing your time to read and act on our pledge.

The World Health Organization defines food security as the consistent economic and physical access to a sufficient quantity of food and fresh water together with the knowledge of how to use it. Because of the changing dynamics of food supply, this equation works out very differently if you happen to be a wealthy, perhaps overweight citizen of the developed world rather than an undernourished subsistence farmer in the the third world. 

Developing countries need to be able to feed themselves, because they can't afford imports. Wealthy countries, especially those who have little or no farmland themselves, have both the political and economic clout to buy long leases on fertile bits of other countries to ensure a stable supply.In 2008/9 the World Bank reported a sharp rise in large scale land deals with over 46m hectares (ha) across 464 negotiations. By 2011 it had risen to 80m, shared mainly between speculators, corporations, and sovereign wealth funds. Examples include Daewoo leasing 1.3m ha in Madagascar for biofuels (which take up 20% of all deals) and Qatar making arrangements in Kenya, Cambodia, Sudan and Vietnam for fruit, vegetables, rice and wheat. 70% of all deals are in Africa, perhaps because most of the land titles are either unassigned or held by governments.

The consequence of large scale changes of ownership can include large scale displacement of locals, loss of livelihoods and environmental damage. Food and feed crops will double in the next fifty years to meet escalating demand, but will it meet the needs of those who need it most?

We value your membership participation and recruitment drives for our cause. Lead on into wellness and uplift our cause concern wherever you are placed.

Yours in the Cause,

Dr Sravani S Nakhro (Cause Creator)

to comment