Land & Resources

A global wave of land and water grabs is concentrating farmland and other food producing resources in the hands of a few, with serious consequences for both rural and urban communities. For an introduction to this issue, download our Food First Issue Primer on Land & Resources

Promised Land: Competing Visions of Agrarian Reform

Book | Michael Courville, Peter Rosset and Raj Patel | Nov 1, 2006

Agrarian reform is back at the center of the rural development debate, a debate of vital importance to the future of the Global South and genuine economic democracy.

Water as Commodity: The Wrong Prescription

Backgrounders & Issue Brief | Maude Barlow | Jul 1, 2001

Under the current system of market-driven economic globalization, there are no limits placed on where capital can go to 'harvest' nature.

The Last Plantation

Backgrounders & Issue Brief | Anuradha Mittal | Dec 1, 2000

Melvin Bishop is among hundreds of black farmers who have filed complaints charging that USDA loan officials have discouraged, delayed, or rejected loan applications because of their race.

Twelve Myths About Hunger

Backgrounders & Issue Brief | Frances Moore Lappé, Joseph Collins and Peter Rosset | Aug 1, 1998

Why so much hunger? What can we do about it? To answer these questions we must unlearn much of what we have been taught.

Agrarian Reform in El Salvador: An evaluation

Development Report | Martin Diskin | Jan 1, 1985

The "most sweeping land reform in Latin American history" is in reality an inadequate measure to redress the most serious problem facing El Salvador.