Soros and the looming food crisis:

Submitted by ghettodefender on Sun, 09/02/2007 - 9:11pm.

Soros said his company, Adecoagro, was investing nearly $1 billion in, among other things, three mills with 150,000 hectares (370,500 acres) of cane in Mato Grosso do Sul state in south-central Brazil. http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN0541320920070605

The MST, Latin America's largest social movement, stages occupations of unproductive land to press for faster, more effective agrarian reform.

The movement now has a new concern: the biofuel craze and its impact on the distribution of land.

Stedile said that "What worries us now is the offensive we are seeing by U.S. investors who are funnelling large amounts of money into the purchase of land and distilleries in Brazil, to produce ethanol." http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=38161

He pointed to the purchase of 13 ethanol factories, mainly by U.S. investors. For example, U.S. agribusiness giant Cargill bought the largest ethanol plant in Riberao Preto in the interior of the state of Sao Paulo, along with 356,000 hectares of sugar cane crops.

"The recent announcement in Brazil by Soros is also pathetic," said the activist.

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The Looming Food Crisis

Submitted by Alice on Sun, 09/02/2007 - 7:08pm.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/082907EA.shtml

John Vidal, The Guardian UK, writes: "The era of 'agrofuels' has arrived, and the scale of the changes it is already forcing on farming and markets around the world is immense. But the surge in demand for agrofuels such as ethanol is hitting the poor and the environment the hardest."