John Vidal
London Guardian ^[1]
Oct 4, 2012

International land investors and biofuel producers have taken over land around the world that could feed nearly 1 billion people.

Analysis by Oxfam of several thousand land deals completed in the last decade shows that an area eight times the size of the UK has been left idle by speculators or is being used largely to grow biofuels ^[2] for US or European vehicles.

In a report, published on Thursday, Oxfam says the global land rush is out of control and urges the World Bank ^[3] to freeze its investments in large-scale land acquisitions to send a strong signal to global investors to stop “land grabs”.

“More than 60% of investments in agricultural land by foreign investors between 2000 and 2010 were in developing countries with serioushunger ^[4] problems. But two-thirds of those investors plan to export everything they produce on the land. Nearly 60% of the deals have been to grow crops that can be used for biofuels,” says the report.

Full article here ^[1]