Land Grabbing Journeys In The New Colonialism

To the governments and corporations that are currently buying up vast tracts of the Third World, it is called "land leasing." To its critics this new era of colonization is nothing more than "land grabbing." In this arresting account of how millions of hectares of fertile soil are being stolen to feed the wealthy thousands of miles away, journalist Stefano Liberti takes us from a Dutch-owned model farm in Ethiopia to an international conference in Riyadh, where representatives of Third World governments compete to attract the interest of Saudi investors; from institutional and commercial meetings in Rome to the headquarters of the Landless Workers' Movement in São Paulo.

Stefano Liberti is a journalist at the foreign desk of the Italian daily newspaper il manifesto. He is the author of two books: Lo stivale meticcio, a short critical guide documenting the condition of contemporary foreign immigrants in Italy, and A sud di Lampedusa, a groundbreaking exploration of the routes of Sub-Saharan African migrations to Western Europe. He is the winner of the 2008 Luchetta Prize, 2010 Carletti Prize, and 2010 Indro Montanelli Prize for his writing.