Soil on Sale

Author: Thomas Kasper, Dirk Schulze

Length: 27'

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The struggle for food is on: according to UN projections, world population will exceed nine billion by the year 2050. Global harvests and food stores will fall well short of demand. State-run companies, market speculators and commercial agribusinesses are already fiercely competing for the raw material of the future: farmland. Global players have their sights set first and foremost on Africa, a continent already plagued by hunger and malnourishment. Corrupt governments, wars, natural disasters and underdeveloped agricultural practices all collude to perpetuate the problem. ‘Soil on Sale’ reveals that Tanzania has long been selling off fertile land for a pittance on a grand scale to foreign companies. China, especially, is losing no time in the scramble for new land claims – with dramatic consequences for the local population. But there are also positive developments in Kenya, where a US multi-millionaire aims to win the fight against hunger for good with agricultural projects in former swampland.

year of production: 2010