As Chinese Purchases Of US Farmland Soar, It's Becoming Impossible To Track How Much It Owns
by Tyler DurdeN, January 21, 2024
The topic of China's ownership of US farmlands is starting to boil over.
Six months after we reported that a "Bipartisan Bill Aims To Block Chinese Purchase Of US Farmland", more are starting to pay attention yet as even Bloomberg notes that America "is seeing more and more of its most fertile land snapped up by China and other foreign buyers" the big problem remains: it’s difficult to know just how much farmland China has bought due to problem with how the US tracks such data.
Here's what we do know: according to Department of Agriculture data foreign ownership and investment in US farmland, pastures and forests jumped to about 40 million acres in 2021, up 40% from 2016; but an analysis conducted by the US Government Accountability Office – a non-partisan watchdog that reports to Congress – found mistakes in the data, including the largest land holding linked with China being counted twice. Other challenges include the USDA’s reliance on foreigners self-reporting their activity.
As a result, foreign ownership of US cropland is drawing attention from Washington as concern rises about possible threats to food supply chains and other national security risks. And, as we reported last summer, lawmakers have called for a crackdown on sales of farmland to China and other nations.
Why French farmers are up in arms: fuel hikes, green regulation, EU directives
by Louis Chahuneau, January 23, 2024
France’s farmers are angry with their government. Several dozen of them have been blocking a portion of the A64 highway near Toulouse since January 18 to express their anger. Then an explosion between Thursday and Friday night blew out the windows of a local government building in the nearby city of Carcassonne. Two graffiti tags left at the scene attributed the act to a mysterious collective of winemakers.
"It is not insignificant that this [the protest movement] comes from the south of the country," said François Purseigle, a sociology professor at the French agronomy faculty of the Toulouse Institute of Technology. "Farmers are on the frontline of climate change, with successive droughts taking place, and they have been repeatedly told they are not doing enough for the environment."
Surprised by the farmers’ blockades, France’s government announced a delay of "several weeks’" for reforms announced over a year ago to help farmers. The stakes are high: France lost 20% (101,000) of its farms between 2010 and 2020, according to a recent survey.
"Many young people today prefer to avoid self-employment because they would earn less than a farm employee, and this should not be the case," said Yohann Barbe, a cattle farmer in the Vosges department in northeastern France. Successive governments have been struggling to stop the phenomenon. "Nearly 200,000 farmers will be of retirement age by 2026, but there are not enough buyers [to take over their farms]," said Purseigle. "There is a gap between Macron’s speech on 'civic rearmament' and the reality of farmers who feel completely disarmed."
Bill Gates says Africans need GMO seeds, chickens to survive climate change
by Ethan Huff, December 5, 2023
This year’s Africa Climate Summit, which was held in Nairobi, Kenya, from Sept. 4-6, featured the usual lineup of billionaire eugenicists pushing for a biotechnological takeover of Africa, one of them being Bill Gates.
Marketed using the slogan "Driving Green Growth & Climate Finance Solutions for Africa and the World," the summit featured plenty of commentary from Gates about his various "climate crisis" investments in an apparently pre-recorded speech, which you can watch below.
Scientific Society on Ecology (GfOE) and 100 researchers warn against genetic engineering without risk assessment
GMWatch, Drvrmber 12, 2023
In a recent statement, the scientific Society for Ecology in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (GfOE) warns against the EU Commission's planned abolition of risk assessment for the majority of plants from new genetic engineering (NGT).
The GfOE, the world's third largest scientific society in the field of ecology, criticises the fact that the EU Commission's proposal fails to "recognise fundamental ecological principles" at the application level of new genetic engineering. In addition, the threshold definition of so-called NGT1 plants, in which no foreign genetic material is incorporated, fails to take environmental risks into account. In its statement, the GFÖ warns that the deregulation of all NGT1 plant species worldwide could pose a serious threat to the conservation of biodiversity and sustainability.
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In a recent statement, the scientific Society for Ecology in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (GfOE) warns against the EU Commission's planned abolition of risk assessment for the majority of plants from new genetic engineering (NGT).
