Last Thursday, PBS NewsHour aired a newscast discussing the conflicts arising from foreign commercial agricultural investment in Ethiopia, an impoverished region without food security. The report is part of a collaboration with the Project for Under-Told Stories at St. John's University in Minnesota and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, and is the first mainstream newscast I've seen addressing the devestation of land grabs in poor countries.
As I posted last week, the World Bank and FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization for the United Nations) both seem to suggest that there can be benefits to foreign land acquisitions when handled properly. However, most social justice organizations argue that the practice is unsustainable--threatening food security for indigenous populations in poor countries that have little representation when these deals are made.
The biggest problem regarding land grabbing is the lack of transparency of such transactions. Not only are deals made behind the backs of the local people affected the most, but most deals are also made in secrecy, leaving the public blind to this major agricultural issue. Even the world's major agricultural organizations such as IFPRI (International Food Policy Research Institute) have little data on how many transactions are actually in affect. In fact, progressive, under-the-radar media and blogs seem to be the only ones covering the topic.
Consequently, I'm thrilled to see Fred de Sam Lazaro and PBS increasing transparency by covering such an underreported issue. I strongly reccommend watching the newscast. Hopefully it will increase international awareness and motivate other journalists to research this threat to Africa's food security.
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