BANGER OF THE WEEK: Land-Grabbing

If you're looking for a story told from the first person with the research chops of a cutting-edge consultancy, you've come to the right place. The entire world story of land-grabbing, from the marbled halls of Zurich to the red dirt of South Sudan, board rooms of Rio de Janeiro to safe-houses of Saudi Arabia, is told in this tight and smart tome.

The types of crops that must be invested in for agribusiness firms that are publicly traded (remember fiduciary responsibility) have particular requirements. The tropics of Cancer and Capricorn hold between them the region where these staples can feed-forward into some of the most important industries of animal feed and biofuel.

Most of this is ignored, allowed or subsidized by national governments the world over, but it continues to astound how these land acquisition projects evacuate people from what is ostensibly their own land. The level of abstraction in "public interest" for eminent domain policy is a dangerous tool that will likely disenfranchise and impoverish millions in the coming years.

It's a book that leads one to think about how the internationalized and ephemeralized corporation must sacrifice its own soul at the altar of international competition for a slice of an ever-thinner pie. My only hope is that, with the coming regionalization and stepping away from international trade, we won't need more books like this BANGER OF THE WEEK.
10/10