Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Land availability
Scarce
Abundant
Income level
Medium to high
Low
Domestic structure
Strong
land rights
Weak
land rights
No land for
investors
Attractive but
competitive
Most
attractive
Attractive
Egypt
UAE
Brazil
Australia
Mozambique
Ethiopia
Tanzania
Figure. 34.2
Who are the hosts? Determinants of host country attractiveness for interna-
tional farmland investment
to land grabbing, which illustrate how scholars, activists, politicians, and others are
attempting to come to grips with the twenty-first century land rush.
At present, theoretical approaches in academic and political discussions of land grab-
bing gravitate into two main perspectives. The liberal perspective is founded on a belief
in the virtually unlimited potential of market capitalism to generate well-being. From
thisperspective,the2007-2008foodandinancialcriseswereacontingentmoment
of instability in the global economy. The wave of large-scale farmland acquisition in
response to this instability is seen as the linear continuation of the expansion of capi-
talist agriculture toward rationalized global production. Large-scale land deals for
agro-industrial production are part of a natural unfolding of economic logic, and the
most important practical issue is not whether such expansion should occur, but rather
howitcanbe“managed”toaccordwithsomenormativestandards—ofequity,justice,
Search WWH ::
Custom Search