Oxfam, a nongovernmental organization based in the United Kingdom helping others to overcome poverty, says that there are conflicts over food, human abuse, and human rights abuse in developing countries because of the governments taking people’s land, known as land grabbing. The governments are taking their land because of pressure from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to “put farmland on the international market to increase economic development and improve the balance of payments.” People who own the lands are being told false promises or are evicted off the land. Many of these people and families are already poor and forcing them to give up their land is making them homeless. Most of the land grabs are because of governments wanting to grow sugar cane and oil palm for biofuels. The World Bank claims that these people are consulted about giving up their land. They are saying that people should invest in the land to bring themselves out of poverty, but the rush for land is making their lives worse than they already were.
Land grabbing is taking place in many countries in Africa and some in Latin America. The drought has caused many harvests to go bad and people to go without food. This problem has lead to food riots and the land grabbing to try to produce food and biofuels. Land grabbing is actually making people worse off than they already were. Oxfam recognizes this as a social issue and is trying to help the people affected by it. People and families rely on the lands to grow food to make a living and the governments are forcing them off the land making them to become homeless and impoverished. Many of these people have families and they can’t support them anymore. Investor’s short term investments in the land may make them turn towards less sustainable ways of growing food and in the long run there won’t be enough food for everyone if they keep on this path.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/sep/22/oxfam-land-grab-developing-countries
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