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The Landgrabbers

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The Landgrabbers

Unread postby M_B_S » Wed 05 Sep 2012, 10:20:08

Here is my first book tip:

Fread Pearce,The Landgrabbers [Kindle Edition] , Transworld Digital (24. Mai 2012)
Amazon.com

Press notes:

"Pearce may be the only person to visit all the critical frontlines worldwide, and his brilliant reporting makes the abstraction real. Probably the most important environmental book anyone could read right now.”—Timothy Searchinger, fellow, German Marshall Fund; research scholar, Princeton University

“Compelling and well-researched ... Dissects the modern rush to acquire land for production, investment, speculation or preservation.”—Wendy Wolford, Nature

“Raises complex and urgent issues.”—Booklist, starred review

“A thorough and enlightening exposé.”—Conservation

“A well-researched, informative and accessible look at important economic and agricultural issues.”—Kirkus Reviews

“This is just what the world has been waiting for—a detailed overview of the land grabs that are the principal manifestation of a new geopolitics of food.”—Lester R. Brown, President of Earth Policy Institute and author of World on the Edge

“The remarkable Fred Pearce has done it again: in The Land Grabbers he opens up vastly important new terrain few of us have even noticed. When the rich and powerful start buying up the planet's fundamental resources—land and water—from the poor and vulnerable, we'd all better notice.”—James Gustave Speth, author of The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability

“Wherever on this earth poor villagers, agribusiness magnates, ignorant or corrupt governments, petrodollars, commodity traders and hungry multitudes come together, Fred Pearce is at the nexus, brilliantly reporting on the biggest swindle of the 21st century. With the modern landgrab, the enclosure movement has attained planetary proportions and Pearce is without peer in describing the dire consequences of this ongoing human and environmental disaster.”—Susan George, author, Hijacking America, board president, the Transnational Institute

"In The Land Grabbers, Pearce has produced a powerful piece of journalism that illuminates how the drive for expanded food production is transfomring the planet. anyone who cares where her next meal is coming from should read it."–Washington Post
Pressestimmen
"Pearce may be the only person to visit all the critical frontlines worldwide, and his brilliant reporting makes the abstraction real. Probably the most important environmental book anyone could read right now.”—Timothy Searchinger, fellow, German Marshall Fund; research scholar, Princeton University

“Compelling and well-researched ... Dissects the modern rush to acquire land for production, investment, speculation or preservation.”—Wendy Wolford, Nature

“Raises complex and urgent issues.”—Booklist, starred review

“A thorough and enlightening exposé.”—Conservation

“A well-researched, informative and accessible look at important economic and agricultural issues.”—Kirkus Reviews

“This is just what the world has been waiting for—a detailed overview of the land grabs that are the principal manifestation of a new geopolitics of food.”—Lester R. Brown, President of Earth Policy Institute and author of World on the Edge

“The remarkable Fred Pearce has done it again: in The Land Grabbers he opens up vastly important new terrain few of us have even noticed. When the rich and powerful start buying up the planet's fundamental resources—land and water—from the poor and vulnerable, we'd all better notice.”—James Gustave Speth, author of The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability

“Wherever on this earth poor villagers, agribusiness magnates, ignorant or corrupt governments, petrodollars, commodity traders and hungry multitudes come together, Fred Pearce is at the nexus, brilliantly reporting on the biggest swindle of the 21st century. With the modern landgrab, the enclosure movement has attained planetary proportions and Pearce is without peer in describing the dire consequences of this ongoing human and environmental disaster.”—Susan George, author, Hijacking America, board president, the Transnational Institute

************************************************************************************

For a Peak Oiler it is a logical consequens....

Also a finite ressource: Peak Soil....

There will be war for oil and yes for soil.

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Re: The Landgrabbers

Unread postby Pops » Wed 05 Sep 2012, 14:50:50

Looks good, thanks.

Those 1s/0s will need to be cashed in before they expire...
The legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do, for themselves -- in their separate, and individual capacities.
-- Abraham Lincoln, Fragment on Government (July 1, 1854)
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Re: The Landgrabbers

Unread postby SilentRunning » Wed 05 Sep 2012, 19:43:25

Pops wrote:Looks good, thanks.

Those 1s/0s will need to be cashed in before they expire...


I'm converting some of my 1s & 0s into 30 acres of additional land by the end of the year.
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The last ones were delicious!!! :-)
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Re: The Landgrabbers

Unread postby SeaGypsy » Thu 06 Sep 2012, 01:16:36

In your own country? I think that's Pop's point... whilst countries currently eager for exchange currency 'sell the farm' virtually every one has the right in small print to reclaim it in 'the National interest'.
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Re: The Landgrabbers

Unread postby PrestonSturges » Thu 06 Sep 2012, 01:37:45

FWIW my GF looks like she is about to inherit 250 acres of clear cut river bottom black loamy sand that lacks useful road access, but which will grow soybeans even in the worst drought. It may be a good investment as farm land. Too bad it is all swarms of biting insects and rattlesnakes.
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Re: The Landgrabbers

Unread postby M_B_S » Wed 07 Nov 2012, 03:29:40

NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov. 2 (UPI) --

The head of the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization warned that "land grabs" of vast tracts of arable land in Africa by foreign governments and investors is like the "Wild West" and threatens the continent's food security.


Read more: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy ... z2BWHAedbD

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Re: The Landgrabbers

Unread postby M_B_S » Mon 23 Sep 2013, 16:14:07

http://qz.com/127258/why-china-just-bou ... f-ukraine/

China has inked a deal to farm three million hectares (about 11, 583 square miles) of Ukrainian land over the span of half a century—which means the eastern European country will give up about 5% of its total land, or 9% of its arable farmland to feed China’s burgeoning population.
*********************
Ukraine the bred basket for Europe or China ?
:shock:

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Re: The Landgrabbers

Unread postby ROCKMAN » Mon 23 Sep 2013, 16:37:32

M.B.S. -"Ukraine the bred basket for Europe or China?

You talking babies or wheat? LOL.
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Re: The Landgrabbers

Unread postby ROCKMAN » Mon 23 Sep 2013, 16:53:12

pstarr - I knew the Chinese bought that Russian carrier. Is that it operational or did you photoshop it, you sly dog?
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Re: The Landgrabbers

Unread postby dissident » Mon 23 Sep 2013, 19:09:09

A Chinese carrier group in the Black Sea is not a bloody likely to happen. But Ukraine is basically a failed state (with a functioning central government instead of Somalia style gangs). Not only are they giving away land they are allowing precious chernozem topsoil to be scraped off and shipped abroad. It takes thousands of years to generate this topsoil and unlike oil, it is the real black gold. There is frenzy of trying to get Ukraine to "join" the EU instead of the Russian Customs Union to spite Russia. Does the EU want to feed 50 million people? The EU has fix its own economic crisis before meddling in another.
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Re: The Landgrabbers

Unread postby AgentR11 » Mon 23 Sep 2013, 19:39:36

The Chinese do own a carrier, it does work. Its not for power projection. They've got at least a couple decades of systemic learning to do before they can use a carrier group to project power.

I believe they will get there. I believe they'll be completely uninterested in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. Indian and South Pacific are much more troublesome for them, and they do need to get their act together, especially if the US scales back further. Reagan once pursued the notion of a 600 ship Navy... today.. ~300. Just for scale. Not saying this is the wrong direction for us, Navies can bankrupt nations, but its a balance between force projection and economic sustainability.

If we scaled back further, China might really need a Navy with air power to protect its own shipping; as opposed to making dramatic shows of foolishness around lumps of rock sticking out of the water.
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Re: The Landgrabbers

Unread postby radon1 » Mon 23 Sep 2013, 19:43:32

Ukraine is close to a sovereign default and an avalanche of retail loan defaults.

http://www.unn.com.ua/en/news/1252368-pidpisannya-ugodi-z-yes-mozhe-prizvesti-do-defoltu-ukrayini-s-glazyev


Description of the actual financial situation in Ukraine (no English translation unfortunately):http://www.regnum.ru/news/polit/1710779.html

Basically, the country's currency is now plummeting because the National Bank does not have enough hard currency reserves to cover the payments for the Russian energy and other imports.
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Re: The Landgrabbers

Unread postby Newfie » Mon 23 Sep 2013, 19:57:06

I own some land in Canada. Not great but it could support a family or two including fire wood.

Been thinking about taking half my retirement 401k and buying a fixer upper I can convert to two nice apartments. We have a house with 4 apartments now that is working well.

But I'm getting arthritis in the hands and bursitis in the knees. Not sure what's gonna cave in first, the 1s and 0s or me body! :cry:
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Re: The Landgrabbers

Unread postby M_B_S » Tue 24 Sep 2013, 02:33:10

You talking babies or wheat? LOL.
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Lol: .... bread

But no bread => no baby!

China to end one child policy.....?

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/china- ... &nid=44033

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Re: The Landgrabbers

Unread postby ROCKMAN » Tue 24 Sep 2013, 12:39:03

MBS - I adopted my daughter in China in 2000. I was told then they had a slang term for all those tens of million of men that had no chance for a wife due to the OC policy: translated as "barren branches". They didn't hold too tight to the policy in the rural regions even back then: needed more farm hands. And I have also seen reports of a shift in the policy in general.
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Re: The Landgrabbers

Unread postby M_B_S » Sat 22 Mar 2014, 07:21:49

http://www.tni.org/sites/www.tni.org/fi ... un2013.pdf

Land concentration,
land grabbing and
people’s struggles
in Europe
******************************

You have to know what you have to know!

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Re: The Landgrabbers

Unread postby Keith_McClary » Sat 22 Mar 2014, 21:32:47

ROCKMAN wrote:pstarr - I knew the Chinese bought that Russian carrier. Is that it operational or did you photoshop it, you sly dog?
They bought it from Ukraine and refitted it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_ai ... ing#Origin
It was quite an adventure.
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Re: The Landgrabbers

Unread postby ROCKMAN » Sat 22 Mar 2014, 22:43:22

I had forgotten our chat about the Ukraine last fall. In retrospect it almost sounds like China and Russia had been planning to gangbang the Ukraine for a while. Consider that Russia has now taken control of hundreds of $billions in Ukrainian oil/NG assets. And China has taken control of a big chunk of the Ukrainian breadbasket: "China has inked a deal to farm three million hectares (about 11, 583 square miles) of Ukrainian land over the span of half a century—which means the eastern European country will give up about 5% of its total land, or 9% of its arable farmland to feed China’s burgeoning population." So know Russia can swap formerly Ukrainian oil to China for what was formerly Ukrainian wheat production (some of which also feed the EU). And what about the mighty Ukrainian steel making machine now that it has lost 20% of its NG production along with Crimea? Gotta keep those furnaces hot. Those dynamics seem to have changed significantly in the last few weeks:

MOSCOW, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Ukraine's choice of closer ties with Moscow, spurning a trade pact with the EU, could rub its struggling steelmakers up against Russia's own beleaguered metals firms, who will resist Kiev's attempts to export its way out of trouble. Since President Viktor Yanukovich pulled out of the deal with the European Union, a key market for the steel industry, the former Soviet country of 46 million has been in turmoil, with mass protests in the capital and markets hammered by fears of currency devaluation or sovereign bond default. The protests will make it harder for Yanukovich to accept President Vladimir Putin's invitation to join a regional Customs Union and the advantages that would bring to its exporters. Russian steelmakers are also unlikely to feel warmly towards the political rapprochement. "Steelmakers in Russia certainly see Ukrainian competition as a threat," said Sergey Donskoy, an industry analyst at Societe Generale in Moscow.

Ukraine produced 33 million tonnes of raw steel in 2012 - down 10 million from its 2007 peak - and exported a total of 24 million tonnes of steel mill products, accounting for 28 percent of the country's entire exports. Russian output, 70 million tonnes last year, has been more stable. The former Soviet Union has the biggest steel surplus of any region and, with global demand depressed, freer trade between the neighbours would only intensify competition. Russian steelmakers have aggressively lobbied their government to implement measures to defend domestic producers from Ukrainian imports, which exceeded 3 million tonnes last year. In July, Russia scrapped duty-free quotas on Ukrainian steel pipes, while last month it launched an anti-dumping probe into steel rod imports from Ukraine into the Customs Union that also includes Belarus and Kazakhstan.

December just doesn't seem like that long ago.
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