Impact of transnational land acquisitions on local food security and dietary diversity.

Foreign investors have acquired approximately 90 million hectares of land for agriculture over the past two decades. The effects of these investments on local food security remain unknown. While additional cropland and intensified agriculture could potentially increase crop production, preferential targeting of prime agricultural land and transitions toward export-bound crops might affect local access to nutritious foods. We test these hypotheses in a global systematic analysis of the food security implications of existing land concessions. We combine agricultural, remote sensing, and household survey data (available in 11 sub-Saharan African countries) with georeferenced information on 160 land acquisitions in 39 countries. We find that the intended changes in cultivated crop types generally imply transitions toward energy-rich, but nutrient-poor, crops that are predominantly destined for export markets. Specific impacts on food production and access vary substantially across regions. Deals likely have little effect on food security in eastern Europe and Latin America, where they predominantly occur within agricultural areas with current export-oriented crops, and where agriculture would have both expanded and intensified regardless of the land deals. This contrasts with Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, where deals are associated with both an expansion and intensification (in Asia) of crop production. Deals in these regions also shift production away from local staples and coincide with a gradually decreasing dietary diversity among the surveyed households in sub-Saharan Africa. Together, these findings point to a paradox, where land deals can simultaneously increase crop production and threaten local food security.

The food in our future: where will we find ethics? / El alimento en nuestro futuro: ¿dónde encontraremos la ética?

Food and agricultural systems are in large part driven by technology. Together with public policy, the kinds of technologies that are induced into, or chosen by actors in, food systems, dictates their structure and activities. The "Big Story" or ideology which underlies research, development and adoption of technologies provides the justification for choices we make about the future of the food system. A combination of productionism -more is better, and "feed the world"- is what governs, and seems to be what will govern Western food systems. Important ethical questions include whether more is better and whether we will feed the world with our technology and policy. But a parallel question is how will we include critical consideration of the continued legitimacy of our Big Story? This system, after all, has worked well for the past century

Los sistemas alimentarios y agrícolas son, en gran parte, impulsados por la tecnología. Junto con la política pública, las tipologías de tecnologías que están introducidas, o elegidas por los sujetos en los sistemas alimentarios, imponen sus estructuras y actividades. La «Gran Historia» o ideología que subyace a la investigación, al desarrollo y a la adopción de las tecnologías, proporciona la justificación de las decisiones que tomamos sobre el futuro del sistema alimentario. Una combinación de produccionismo -"more is better", y "feed the world"- es lo que gobierna, y parece ser lo que sostendrá, los sistemas alimentarios occidentales. Las preguntas éticas importantes incluyen si «más es mejor» y si vamos a «alimentar al mundo» con nuestra tecnología y política. Sin embargo, una cuestión paralela es, ¿cómo vamos a incluir la consideración crítica de la legitimidad continua de nuestra «Gran Historia»? Este sistema, después de todo, ha funcionado bien durante el siglo pasado