Capitalism cops the most scrutiny as Pearce describes Saudi oil billionaires snapping up land for agribusiness in Ethopia, Christian evangelists preaching to the natives in Kenya while draining their wetlands, and bulldozers flattening Asian forests so Westerners can have cheap paper and sugar. Even New Zealand's Crafar Farms warrant a mention.
The corporations bring in big profits but contribute little to the country in return, while locals often find their ancestral lands sold out from under them. In the meantime the gap between rich and poor continues to widen. "Will they feed the world," says Pearce, "or just the bottom line?"
One alarming revelation is that international investment agreements can trump national laws. "Even if the locals are starving or parched with thirst, in law the rights of the foreign investor come first." Back in America and Great Britain, investment gurus are jumping from the stock market to farmland, speculating on food prices with little concern for how this affects people in developing countries.
But wealthy environmentalists don't look much better. They preach about saving the rainforest while ignoring the equally-important cerrado grasslands in Brazil, and throw native tribes off their land in Africa to create wildlife parks for tourists. In some cases, strict enforcement of environmental reserves can punish the poor who have nowhere else to go.
The book is engrossing, thoroughly-researched and dreary, offering little hope that we can turn things around. There are one or two examples of foreign investors behaving responsibly and a chapter at the end praising small-scale traditional farming, but overall Pearce's outlook is pretty grim.
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