The Parable of Arable Land

Here's a problem I did not realize existed - certain Second World countries are going around Africa and Asia buying farmland: Buying Farmland Abroad: Outsourcing's Third wave

Countries that export capital but import food are outsourcing farm production to countries that need capital but have land to spare. Instead of buying food on world markets, governments and politically influential companies buy or lease farmland abroad, grow the crops there and ship them back.

Saudi Arabia, China, and South Korea are especially active in this area. I would say, hey, if there's a willing buyer and a willing seller, what's the problem? But there are always naysayers:

Supporters of such deals argue they provide new seeds, techniques and money for agriculture, the basis of poor countries’ economies, which has suffered from disastrous underinvestment for decades. Opponents call the projects “land grabs”, claim the farms will be insulated from host countries and argue that poor farmers will be pushed off land they have farmed for generations. What is unquestionable is that the projects are large, risky and controversial. In Madagascar they contributed to the overthrow of a government.

It's only a few paragraphs before the article mentions "colonialism." And, I think we can imagine the reaction if Halliburton started traveling the world buying farmland. Naomi Klein would have enough material for at least another book!

I have to wonder about the "danger" of all this. There's some harrumphing about government-to-government deals with no transparency, with Bottom Billion elites grinning widely next to Hu Jintau. But, how bad a deal can this be? The land isn't going anywhere. Is China going to ship Kenyan farms overseas?

Moreover, you would think there would be some advantage to the sellers here. They have a real chance to see their arable land producing food on an industrial scale. Even if the buyers are going to operate the farms, it's hard to believe whatever techniques or technologies they use won't make their way into the hinterlands of the sellers, improving their private farming, along with the "export" farms.

Plus. I am not sure that Western Europeans have any business criticizing this. forget the "legacy of colonialism." Africa and Asia's poorer countries are now grappling with the legacy of World Bank projects, UN corruption, and decades-long civil wars that were set off by superpower rivalries during the Cold War. If you were the president of Kenya, would you rather have a bunch of Ivy League Peace Corps volunteers show your people "how to farm" (which they have been doing for millenia)? Or would you rather take a big suitcase full of cash from someone who will actually modernize farming in your country. The choice is an easy one.