BRUSSELS — The World Bank, U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization, International Fund for Agricultural Development, and U.N. Conference on Trade and Development Secretariat recently presented seven "Principles for Responsible Agricultural Investment."
The principles seek to ensure that large-scale land investments result in "win-win" situations, benefiting investors and directly affected communities alike. But, though well-intended, the principles are woefully inadequate.
It has been several years since private investors and states began buying and leasing millions of hectares of farmland worldwide to secure their domestic supply of food, raw commodities and biofuels, or to get subsidies for carbon storage through plantations. Western investors, including Wall Street banks and hedge funds, now view direct investments in land as a haven.