Feminists
Related: About this forumThe Word on Women - Food Insecurity and the Energy Crisis Result in Grabbing Land from Women
http://www.trust.org/trustlaw/blogs/the-word-on-women/food-insecurity-and-the-energy-crisis-result-in-grabbing-land-from-womenBy Lydia Alpizar Duran
2/15/2012
Once the most frequented source of poster images depicting starving children, Ethiopia is now in the media for a new reason: as the go-to destination, ironically, for foreign companies and governments leasing land to grow food and biofuels.
Globally, food prices are rising. Food security is dubious in the Global North, Gulf countries and emerging economies such as China and India. Moreover, many nations face an energy crisis and are on a quest to find renewable alternatives to fossil fuels such as biofuels.
Given this confluence of circumstances, countries with abundant land such as Ethiopia, once ignored as too poor and destitute to warrant anything but food aid, now enjoy most favored nation status in the eyes of foreign investors.
Women, who are already compensating for rising food prices and energy costs with additional time and labor are now further disadvantaged through land grabbing.
kdmorris
(5,649 posts)These people are starving... I'm appalled that Republicans came up with a more "sanitary" name for something so awful. (at least I first heard it during Bush's terms).
That being said - thanks for bringing this up. There was a sentence in there that says Africa's women grow 80% of their food but own less than 1% of the land. With land grabs like this becoming so much more common, I'm glad there are some groups that are trying to stop them. (see link in the article)
BlueIris
(29,135 posts)Awful.
BlueIris
(29,135 posts)227 million hectares of land in Africa."
Holy crap.
petronius
(26,657 posts)makes me think a lot of that foreign investment is to buy non-marginal land to grow biofuel for export, replacing food production for subsistence and domestic use. Holy crap indeed...
PhoenixAbove
(166 posts)I agree with kdmorris. These people are starving... and the land grabbing is just evil but what else could be expected? Men own all the resources to buy up the land.
CrispyQ
(38,113 posts)No fucking shit.
If we don't rein these monsters in, they are going to destroy everything.
All. For. Profit.