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interview Fred Pearce - The Landgrabbers Review By: Mil

Publisher: Eden Project Books/Transworld Publishers
Published: 24 May 2012

Non Fiction
Hardcover
Rating: 4/5
Purchase: Hardcover or Kindle edition UK/US


Right now, an unprecedented land grab is taking place around the world. Every day, parcels of land - the size of Wales and larger-are being gobbled up across the plains of Africa, paddy fields of South-east Asia, jungles of the Amazon and prairies of Eastern Europe.

The raiders are the ultra-rich Gulf oil sheikhdoms, Russian oligarchs, Chinese entrepreneurs, jumpy governments worried about food security in an ever more populated world, and financial speculators looking for the next big investment opportunity.

The victims are subsistence farmers around the world, whose title to the land they work is uncertain and whose power to prevent their governments selling it from beneath them very small.

Following the trail from the boardrooms and ministries to the victims themselves, The Landgrabbers lifts the lid on the most profound ethical, environmental, economic and social issue in the world today.


 

Purchase: Hardcover or Kindle edition UK/US

Rating: 4/5
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When it comes big million dollar corporations upsetting locals, I think I can safely say we have all been on that side of the fence. Whether the local plant has increased traffic on your daily route, created more noise pollution, maybe its just a little sore on the eyes to look at. Whatever the gripe may be, it pales in comparison to the real damage being done out there. In The Landgrabbers, Fred Pearce has documented many cases of rich men from all corners of the world acquiring huge areas of land at very little cost to be utilised for their own specific needs.

While that may sound like run of the mill foreign investment, Pearce uncovers the hard hitting truth about the crooked deals in place to protect wealthy investors at the expense of the locals who in many cases lived on and off the land that was handed over to the highest bidder. With no human compassion in sight, locals are tossed aside, with force if necessary and the once rich, lush, vibrant land is stripped of every resource.

If you have reached this point in reading and await the part about international laws protecting the locals you will be disappointed. In fact, in the event of a drought or famine which has locals starving and thirsty, the laws dictate the supplies available will go to the foreign investors before anybody else. Africa, South America, Asia, Australia all suffer as the land grabbing shows no signs of slowing down regardless of the damage being done to the environment. Farmers are bought out for measly sums, or upon refusal just simply forced out. Animals habitats are bulldozed or they are simply hunted and killed with no remorse. Rivers are running dry as investors increase the size of their operations and it simply cannot be sustained.

With a lack of transparency, land grabbers are not only getting away with breaking promises as well as laws they also escape with big chunks of profit. Pearce shines the spotlight on this issue in great detail with many shocking revelations. As he includes in The Landgrabbers, journalists in Tanzania investigating such organisations have been thrown in prison so the truths are not revealed to the masses. Luckily, he made it back from his travels across the world and managed to document everything in this book.



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The views expressed here are those of the authors and not
necessarily those of Dubcnn as an organisation.

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Thank you to Eden Project Books/Transworld Publishers for providing a review copy.

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