ABSTRACT
Current events have pushed the topic of agrarian reform onto the world stage. Increases in food prices have sharpened the focus on means of food production and on the potential of small farming. As one article referring to the greater productivity of small farming states, ‘these objects of contempt are now our best chance of feeding the world’ (Monbiot 2008:25; see also Chapter 1). At the same time, price increases have made access to land vital for millions of small farmers. In West Bengal, peasant farmers and activists have rioted over the loss of their lands to a petrochemical company and to motorcycle factories (Ramesh 2007, 2008). China's economic boom has left millions landless, and large-scale riots and protests over rural poverty and neglect have become commonplace (Watts 2005, 2006). In Brazil, the Landless Movement (MST) has achieved much success in acquiring land for urban and rural landless people through peaceful land invasions and has presented a model of ‘alternative societies’ in its rural settlements, post land reform. In contrast, state sponsored land invasions in Zimbabwe have presented a ‘model’ of chaotic, poorly administered, and politically motivated land reform, and one that has helped push the country into mass hunger and crisis. Such events and movements focused attention upon the varying social and economic consequences of land reforms.
