Posted by David Hamilton on November 23rd, 2009

There’s a fascinating article in today’s Washington Post, about “out-cropping,” the increasingly common practice of relatively wealthy countries paying to lease agricultural land in developing nations. Presumably because we haven’t done a great job of preserving our own productive lands.  This business model is happening on a massive scale in eastern Africa.  Aside from the sheer irony of depending on Ethiopia for our food security, this trend is plainly shocking for folks like me who read Michael Pollan’s books, listen to the media, and think that agriculture is going the other way.  The local way.

What’s most interesting about this is that nations, and private companies, are signing incredibly long (50-year-plus) leases on massive landholdings.  Clearly someone thinks this outsourcing model has legs, but it seems obviously dependent on inexpensive transport (oil), and on fertilizer (more oil), and the notion of tying our agricultural commodities to the price of an even more volatile commodity (see again, oil).   It’s easy to understand outsourcing a call center, or software tech support, but cows?

We try to do a lot of things here at Bundoran Farm.  We certainly have our successes, and our mis-fires, but at the most basic level there is now a couple thousand acres of farm and forest land, in close proximity to an urban center (Charlottesville), which is protected for future generations, structured for continued operation, and owned by stewards who care what happens.  So if you want to raise a herd in 2025, well, hopefully you won’t have to lease an Eritrean ranch.  North Garden will work.

Filed under: General