Such a Thing as Agro-Imperialism? « Columbus Underground Messageboard

Columbus Underground Messageboard » General Columbus Discussion

Such a Thing as Agro-Imperialism?

[6 posts] [5 contributors]

Topic Rating:

(Total Ratings: )
Rate this topic:

Started 2 years ago by Mercurius
Latest reply from Mister MooCow

Tags:

question marks

Mercurius
First Avenue
Login to Send PM

NYTimes Wrote:

In a series of meetings, Saudi government officials, bankers and agribusiness executives told an institute delegation led by Zeigler that they intended to spend billions of dollars to establish plantations to produce rice and other staple crops in African nations like Mali, Senegal, Sudan and Ethiopia. Ã¢â‚¬Å“They laid out this incredible plan,Ã¢â‚¬Â Zeigler recalled. He was flabbergasted, not only by the scale of the projects but also by the audacity of their setting. Africa, the worldÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s most famished continent, canÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t currently feed itself, let alone foreign markets.

While poor countries have previously sold commodities to wealthier countries, Saudi Arabia is now buying land and setting up plantations across Africa solely for its consumption. I feel fortunate to live in a place surrounded by beautiful arable land and plentiful fresh water. It also gives me reservations about using this prime land for low density suburban development?

Posted 2 years ago #
Mercurius
First Avenue
Login to Send PM

Posted 2 years ago #
KSquared
Literally Hell
Login to Send PM

Wow, Merc, that is scary stuff. With the world population growing, and people now eating more than what we are growing every year, that land will become more and more valuable for farming.
I'm also concerned about water. We are lucky to have the Great Lakes, but don't the western states want a piece of those too?

Posted 2 years ago #
Rockmastermike
CORNspiracy HQ
Login to Send PM

I can hardly blame the Saudis for trying something like this. They have no real way of feeding their population as it is (without massive imports), and it continues to grow.

If done correctly a development deal like this could help whomever agrees to it. Part of the reason those places have trouble feeding their own populations is that their populations have grown beyond their ability to support them on the technology that they have available. Bringing in more modern methodology could indeed greatly improve their situations and turn these places, some of which were largely destroyed by poor land use, back into sound arable land by re-establishing a sound organic cycle.

Of course, if done inequitably it could lead to exploitation. But a fair deal IS possible, it's not automatically exploitation. I refuse to be judgmental about it (yet).

As for protecting Ohio's farmland... HELLS YEAH. We're one of the few places that COULD feed our population without imports. That's priceless and should be protected.

Posted 2 years ago #
gramarye
In Exile
Login to Send PM

Eventually, I think we're going to start moving in directions that are currently in the haze between reality and science fiction, including hydroponics, vertical farming, oceanic agriculture, and so on. However, that doesn't mean that what Saudi Arabia is doing is irrational from their perspective. After all, they're a lot closer--physically and politically--to Sudan, Senegal, Mali, and Ethiopia than we are.

Just speaking about America, though: for the moment, we produce more food even with today's technology than we need to feed even the highest reasonable estimates of our population through well past 2050. More likely, we're good through 2100, barring ecological catastrophe (e.g., massively successful bioterror attack or natural equivalent). In addition, we have a massive amount of empty land that is not currently "prime" farmland (according to Merc's map) but which could very easily be serviceable farmland given the progress of modern technology over the past generation. The leading country on this front has been Israel, which has worked little less than an agricultural miracle, given what they started with.

Posted 2 years ago #
Mister MooCow
Near Mooney's Mansion
Login to Send PM

I seem to recall that famine has much less to do with local agricultural situation than it does with the lack of functioning democracy (I think someone-Amartya Sen?- even won a Nobel Prize for this discovery).

Posted 2 years ago #