Damien Glez cartoon removed for copyright reasons
You can view it at: http://www.afronline.org/?p=2205
Land Grabs & Food Security
“land is not just a resource to be
exploited, but a crucial vehicle for
the achievement of improved
socio-economic,
biological, and physical
environments”
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the
United Nations (1999)
Your presenters...
Alan Parkinson
Secondary Curriculum Development Leader
Geographical Association
John McLaverty
Youth and Schools Coordinator, London & SE
Oxfam GB
Geographies of Food
“Living Geography”
Carl Warner Foodscapes image removed for copyright reasons
http://www.carlwarner.com/information.html
Context...
2009: Manchester
Controversial Issues: Resourcing the Food Crisis
http://geography.org.uk/cpdevents/onlinecpd/foodsecurity/
2010: Derby
Second Helpings: the food crisis one year on
http://geography.org.uk/cpdevents/onlinecpd/geographyoffood/
‘Geography’ article...
Food as geopolitics...
http://cravesydneyfoodfestival.com.au/
Images of food flags removed for copyright reasons
http://cravesydneyfoodfestival.com.au
CURRICULUM
PEDAGOGY
Curriculum Making
Food in the Curriculum
KS3
GCSE
‘A’ level
The Independent – 11th April
Guardian Podcast
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/audio/2011/jan/28/guardianfocus-podcast-land-grabs
John Vidal in Ethiopia’s Gambella region
Guardian video
http://www.guardian.co.uk/globaldevelopment/video/2011/mar/21/ethiopia-land-rush
Enquiry Questions
What are land grabs ?
Are you eating food grown on land
that was grabbed ?
Will land grabs become more
common in the future ?
Land Grabs?
?
Large Scale Agricultural Investment?
English Enclosures
The law doth punish man
or woman
That steals the goose from
off the common
But lets the greater felon
loose
That steals the common
from the goose.
Loxley Chase, west of Sheffield
Scottish Clearances
‘Land Grabs’ seem to be everywhere…
Imperial Expansion
United Fruit Company graphic removed for copyright reasons.
You can view it here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/02/books/review/Kurtz-Phelan-t.html
‘Banana Republics’
21st Century Food
A New Age of Scarcity?
Land Grabs - What’s new?
• Scale
A single farm in Ethiopia is 300,000 hectares – 75
Total land under contract globally – 2 x size of the UK
• Foods and biofuels
rather than cash crops
• State and parastatal investment
rather than private companies
miles across
Who’s grabbing?
The Economist, May 21 2009
Where’s getting grabbed?
Foreign land acquisitions map removed for copyright reasons.
It can be viewed here:
http://www.economist.com/node/13692889
The Economist, May 21st 2009
Grabbing – good or bad?
Image of women working on crops
removed for copyright reasons
Who are the stakeholders? (on the ground/behind the scenes)
• winners? How?
• losers? How?
• make a judgement
Making ‘Land Grabs’ Fair
Re-read the case studies
Design a charter of rights or ethical guidelines
• Protecting people
• Protecting the environment
• Getting a fair deal
Final thought
Are land grabs really water grabs?
Images of crop irrigation removed for copyright reasons
Learn More
www.oxfamblogs.org/fp2p
www.guardian.co.uk/global-development
www.globaldashboard.org
Do more
Oxfam Water Week
11 – 17 July
www.oxfam.org.uk/waterweek
Resources on land grabs
Autumn 2011
www.oxfam.org.uk/education
Thankyou!
John McLaverty
Youth and Schools Campaigner
jmclaverty@oxfam.org.uk
0207 802 9981
Where are land grabs happening ?
http://bighugelabs.com/map.php
Global Warming Recipe.
Ingredients.
Cooking Instructions
• Fossil fuels
•Deforestation
•Cattle
•Rice
1.Liberally burn fossil fuels from the industrial revolution
to the present. Making sure none of the carbon is offset.
2. At the same time, cut down significant numbers of
trees and replace with pastoral land.
3. Put significant numbers of cattle on the pastoral land,
ensuring they are fed with high protein feed, allow them
to pass huge volumes of methane.
4. Make sure you are growing significant amounts of rice
as a side to the main dish.
5. Continue to cook for at least a hundred years and serve
piping hot.
Design a geographical recipe.
With thank to Tony Cassidy for inspiration here