Sometimes
called "land grabbing," this practice can put strains on land and water
resources in impoverished countries where the land, and needed water,
has been "grabbed" for commercial-scale agriculture. A new study by the
University of Virginia and the Polytechnic University of Milan, and
currently published in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
provides the first global quantitative assessment of the water-grabbing
phenomenon, which has intensified in the last four years largely in
response to a 2007-08 increase in world food prices.
Countries
most active in foreign land acquisition are located in the Middle East,
Southeast Asia, Europe and North America. Overall, about 60 percent of
the total grabbed water is appropriated, through land grabbing, by
companies in the United States, United Arab Emirates, India, United
Kingdom, Egypt, China and Israel.
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