Food security – Harvesting another’s crop

Last year’s soaring food prices caused a global crisis that triggered a shopping spree on farm land around the world. Rich countries that normally import food have now bought up large tracts of land in poor food-exporting countries. Arab countries have gotten in on the act, as a result of losing confidence in normal food supply chains. To ensure their food security, many have bought millions of hectares of farmland in Africa and Asia, creating offshore food sources in countries like Indonesia and Ethiopia. “It seems that it has become an important concern for countries in the Arab region which want to meet the growing demands of their populations,” says Devlin Kuyek, a researcher at GRAIN, an international non-profit organization that supports small farmers. Last year, Egypt signed a contract with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to produce 2 million tons of wheat per year in the north of Sudan for