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NEWS AND VIEWS THAT IMPACT LIMITED CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT

"There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with
power to endanger the public liberty." - - - - John Adams

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Arab Food Colonies in Black Africa


An African land grab by Persian Gulf Arabs.
No Property Rights for Farmers.  Corrupt African governments claim all land belongs to the state.


The Road to Serfdom Series
In the United Kingdom 24% of the land is available for agriculture.  While in the UAE it is only 1%.

  • The harvests from overseas Arab "Food Colonies" do not go on the open market.  They are shipped to the mother countries. 
  • The property rights of farmers are ignored by corrupt local governments who sell their nations off to the highest bidders.


Property rights are at the heart of FREEDOM.

There is a land rush going on all over the world, and the rights of individuals to own their private property are not high on the agendas of authoritarian governments.

Authoritarian entities are buying up farmland, oil fields, mines etc.  These authoritarian structures take the forms of governments like Communist China or Saudi Arabia;  sovereign wealth funds backed by governments; and multi-national corporations that answer to no single nation.
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In the case of this article, authoritarian Persian Gulf monarchies are buying up huge tracts of African farmland to export the harvests to the Gulf states while the now landless Africans go hungry.  This is not capitalism.  It is a growing 1984 world where governments now control your food and your property.
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These farmland purchases are even featured at industry trade shows like AgraME, the region’s largest agri business trade event, to be held in Dubai next month.
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Leading the way is Saudi, which is currently investing $23.1 billion in food security initiatives. 

  • The UAE, he stated, has recently acquired or leased more than 1.4 million hectares of arable land in Sudan, Pakistan, and Morocco, while investing $1.4 billion in the country’s value-added food manufacturing sector, resulting in 150 food processing plants.

  • As part of plans to be completely self-sufficient by 2023, Qatar has invested $5.1 billion in various food security initiatives, including leasing 400,000 hectares of land in Kenya against a $3.5 billion loan to the Kenyan government.
  • Bahrain has purchased farmland in India, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, Turkey and Sudan, with 112 of their own food manufacturing plants.
  • Al Ghurair Foods is acquiring 100,000 hectares of farmland in Sudan to grow grain, a move in line with the UAE's efforts to address food security concerns, according to company chairman Essa Abdullah Al Ghurair.  The project to grow soy, wheat and other grains is a joint venture with a Gulf agriculture company and will be announced next month, he said on the sidelines of Gulfood 2012.  The grains will be exported to the UAE and the Gulf region. The land will be acquired on a 99-year lease from the Sudanese government, he added. 
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The increased attention on food security and investment in the GCC is also reflected in the growth of Agra Middle East, which has tripled in growth since its first year in 2007.

(Farmland Grab.org)



UAE has over 2,800 sq km in Sudan farms.


The Abu Dhabi Fund for Development recently announced plans to invest in 30,000 hectares of land in Sudan. It will use the land to produce fodder, wheat, corn and potatoes, according to Alpen Capital.
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“However, the purchase of land banks is now viewed with suspicion by some of the recipient countries and the strategy is limited at best. More-over, the purchase of land banks itself does not guarantee a supply of future food. The simple reason for this is that a country at any point in time can impose an export ban,” Dr Mahate said. 
Another strategy that has been used by Gulf Coast countries is to build reserves of food in order to stabilise food prices and ensure adequate food supplies. 


Essa Al Ghurair, Chairman of Al Ghurair Foods, the largest supplier of grains in the UAE.

The UAE controls more than 2,800 square kilometers in farms in Sudan as a result of its decision to invest in agricultural projects in fertile Arab nations to slash its soaring food import bill, according to a Sudanese official.

The farms, scattered over Khartoum, Jazeera, Nile and other arable provinces in the East African Arab country.

A Sudanese embassy official in Abu Dhabi said the UAE is the largest Gulf investor in farm projects in Sudan, controlling around 700,000 acres (4,832 square kilometers). The farms account for nearly 58 per cent of the 1.2 million acre farming ventures owned by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which groups the UAE with five other Gulf nations.   (Emirates 24-7)

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The Road to Serfdom Series

The world is moving toward a modern form of Neo-Serfdom where everyone works for the all-powerful State or businesses controlled by the State.  A world where individual property rights and economic freedom do not exist.  

FREEDOM IS VANISHING:   What happens when the major employers are owned by government backed investment groups, or your food comes from government owned farms, or your news is delivered by so-called "private" corporations but are in reality connected and interconnected to governments?

George Orwell had a name for it:  Big Brother.

Please check out other stories in our Serfdom series.

THE FEDERALIST - "Chinese colonization of New Zealand blocked."

THE FEDERALIST - "Chinese "Slavery" in Africa - The Road to Serfdom, Part XIV."

THE FEDERALIST - "Argentina fights Saudi Land Grab." 

THE FEDERALIST - "LAND GRAB: 160,000 people thrown off their land."

THE FEDERALIST - "China is buying up Argentina." 

THE FEDERALIST - "Corporations use Global Warming to steal land." 

THE FEDERALIST - "China wants to buy a huge chunk of Iceland"

THE FEDERALIST - "China to buy up Australian farmland"

THE FEDERALIST - "Brazil takes action to protect their farmlands from foreigners"

THE FEDERALIST - "Saudi Arabian "Food Colonies" in Argentina"

THE FEDERALIST - "China buys oil fields in Texas"

THE FEDERALIST - "America is committing suicide - The Road to Serfdom, Part IV"

THE FEDERALIST - "The Road to Serfdom, Part III"

THE FEDERALIST - "Benito Mussolini was right"

THE FEDERALIST - "The Road to Serfdom, Part II" 

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