Agribusinesses have always been secure in the knowledge that the agricultural sector is land-dependent.
This dependency was a form of security. You cannot move a farm or ranch to another country. Already, two waves of globalization have involved the outsourcing of jobs and finances. Needless to say, this form of outsourcing raised serious political issues in many developed countries.
Now a new wave of outsourcing has been initiated, and it strikes at the heart of traditional agribusiness security. It involves outsourcing farmland. Countries that are net food importers and financially well off have begun to approach developing countries that are land-rich but less well-off financially about the acquisition of farmland. Traditionally, the land-rich country would produce the crop and sell it to the foodimporting country. However, the poor, land-rich country does not have the financial resources to exploit this market potential, so it decides to make a deal that calls for the wealthy but land-poor country to supply the finances and necessary materials. Thus, the poor but land-rich country supplies the land and the cheap labor to produce a food crop that is then taken wholly or in part to the well-off , financing country.
At first glance, this could be a “win-win” situation for both parties. It has not turned-out that way, though. The investing country views this arrangement as another form of direct foreign investment, i.e.
providing jobs and finances to a country that needs them. However, often the population of the poor country perceives this arrangement as a “sell out” of resources or another form of colonialism. The poorer country has the perception that it has yielded something valuable (land) to another country and has lost some amount of food security. A major issue of all countries is food security—a country’s ability to control resources to provide food for its citizenry. It is a concern of all countries, as only a very few countries are self-sufficient agriculturally. Self-sufficiency means that the country is able to meet food consumption demand from its own production without importation. Few countries are able to do this.

QUESTIONS
1. When a poor but land-rich country is paid to grow food for a wealthy but land-poor country, how is this different from having a U.S. company grow a crop on U.S. soil and export it to another country?

2. Do you agree or disagree that a poor but land-rich country in this type of outsourcing arrangement has given up some of its food security? Has what the poor country given up been offset by what it has gained?

3. How may the concern for food security be affected by such an outsourcing arrangement?