The Land Grabbers: The New Fight over Who Owns the Earth
"Pearce may be the only person to visit all the critical frontlines worldwide, and his brilliant reporting makes the abstraction real. Probably the most important environmental book anyone could read right now.”—Timothy Searchinger, fellow, German Marshall Fund; research scholar, Princeton University “Compelling and well-researched ... Dissects the modern rush to acquire land for production, investment, speculation or preservation.”—Wendy Wolford,Nature “Raises complex and urgent issues.”—Booklist, starred review “A thorough and enlightening exposé.”—Conservation “A well-researched, informative and accessible look at important economic and agricultural issues.”—Kirkus Reviews“This is just what the world has been waiting for—a detailed overview of the land grabs that are the principal manifestation of a new geopolitics of food.”—Lester R. Brown, President of Earth Policy Institute and author ofWorld on the Edge“The remarkable Fred Pearce has done it again: inThe Land Grabbershe opens up vastly important new terrain few of us have even noticed. When the rich and powerful start buying up the planet's fundamental resources—land and water—from the poor and vulnerable, we'd all better notice.”—James Gustave Speth, author ofThe Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability“Wherever on this earth poor villagers, agribusiness magnates, ignorant or corrupt governments, petrodollars, commodity traders and hungry multitudes come together, Fred Pearce is at the nexus, brilliantly reporting on the biggest swindle of the 21st century. With the modern landgrab, the enclosure movement has attained planetary proportions and Pearce is without peer in describing the dire consequences of this ongoing human and environmental disaster.”—Susan George, author,Hijacking America, board president, the Transnational Institute "InThe Land Grabbers,Pearce has produced a powerful piece of journalism that illuminates how the drive for expanded food production is transfomring the planet. anyone who cares where her next meal is coming from should read it."–Washington Post