Scramble For Soil

Economics, Food & Agriculture Comments (1)

Environmental Photographer of the Year Award 2008, Natural World, runner up: ‘Green Steps’, Ly Hoang Long, Vietnam

A scary article in last Saturday’s Guardian outlines the extent to which rich nations are flexing their financial muscles around the globe to secure their food supplies. This week, Daewoo Logistics of South Korea has announced plans to acquire a 99-year lease on 1 million hectares of land in Madagascar. South Korea now owns 2.3 million hectares of land around the world, predominantly in Madagascar, Mongolia and Sudan. Against a background of fears over rising food prices, globalised greed and local corruption are riding roughshod over environmental concerns and the livelihoods of indigenous populations.

China is a close runner-up to South Korea in the land imperialism stakes, with over 2 million hectares worldwide in Australia, Laos, Phillipines, Russia, Cameroon, Uganda,Kazakhstan, Mexico and Cuba. While on the face of it China has plenty of land, desertification, soil erosion and water shortages are threatening its ability to feed its population thrugh domestic agriculture. According to a report from China’s bio-environment research team, erosion has cost the economy 200 billion yuan ($29 billion) since 2000. Each year 4.5 billion tonnes of topsoil are lost, at which rate harvests in China’s north-eastern breadbasket could fall by 40% in 50 years.

While here in the UK the idea of local food is gathering momentum, other nations think nothing of sourcing their food supplies from halfway round the world.

Pete Smith @ November 23, 2008