Large-scale international land deals are having a huge impact on local communities. Madeleine Bunting and this month's panel guests discuss the issue and debate whether anything can be done to make these agricultural investments work for global development.
Bunting recently visited the Malibya project in Mali, where Libya has leased 100,000 hectares of land in the main rice region. In her report, she finds that local people have been displaced and there are suspicions that the rice will be sent to Libya rather than be used to feed the local communities.
Back in the studio she is joined by the Guardian's environment editor John Vidal, the director of the International Institute for Environment and Development, Camilla Toulmin, and down the line from Montreal is Devlin Kuyek, from GRAIN, an international NGO that works to support social movements and small-scale farming.
The panel discuss the scale and scope of the problem, the benefits for investors and what needs to happen in the future to ensure local farmers benefit from foreign investment.
• Research by Claire Provost
