ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the geographic, political and economic motives behind the developments. Food prices hit record highs again in 2011, continuing a trend which began to attract global public attention during the price spike of 2007–2008. Some countries, such as India, have also encouraged the development by ‘their’ companies of overseas agricultural investments and food supply chains, which are at least partially autonomous from the vagaries of the global market. Dramatic increases in food prices mean many more people around the world are malnourished, so the global ‘food security regime’ is failing. In the wake of the global food price crisis an Indian government committee recommended that Indian companies should be encouraged to shop ‘for land abroad for growing crops to meet consumption needs’. The chapter concludes with reflections on what large-scale foreign land acquisitions mean for the development and trajectory of capitalism on the continent, and the evolution of globalisation.
