Higher oil prices funding ag expansion in other places

Countries short on arable land but heavy on cash -- think the oil kingdoms of Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates -- are buying up farmland in Cambodia. Billions of dollars of it, in fact, according to a recent article in my favorite newspaper, The Christian Science Monitor.

Food shortages are prompting more of this agricultural outsourcing, according to the piece, written by correspondent David Montero. Japan, of course, has been buying up production capacity in Brazil for years. South Korean entities have purchased large tracts in Madagascar. For American farmers, this means that some long-term customers could be reducing their dependence on U.S. commodities as they find more ways to expand their own production globally.

Cambodia is the new growth market for foreign land ownership. Out of potentially 15 million acres of arable land, only less than half is actually farmed, Montero writes. Local and international groups worry about the potential to push aside farmers and their families, plus potential for environmental damage. But with billions of dollars at stake -- plus the promise of modernizing agriculture in the country -- the land rush won't likely slow down soon.

Click here to read the piece, Insecurity drives farm purchases abroad.

-- Owen Taylor