"In the Middle East, water-poor nations are using petrol profits to buy farmland in economically depressed countries like Pakistan and Sudan. China, with its own farmland under pressure from development and pollution, is using some of its vast export income to snap up land in Africa and Southeast Asia.
Meanwhile, Brazil -- the globe's emerging agricultural powerhouse and an increasingly important food supplier to China -- recently threatened to nationalize its fertilizer deposits. Such a move would rankle huge U.S. grain-trading firms like Cargill and Bunge, which dominate Brazil's ever-expanding fertilizer market."
-Tom Philpott, Grist.org-
Read more about Paul Roberts' new book "The End of Food" in Philpott's article "The Locavore's Dilemma."