Investor ownership or social investment? Changing farmland ownership in Saskatchewan, Canada

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• 作者：Annette Aurélie Desmarais ; Darrin Qualman ; André Magnan…
• 关键词：Land grabbing ; Financialization of land ; Land sovereignty ; Saskatchewan farmland ; Investor ownership of land ; GIS ; Land ; titling data ; Social investment
• 刊名：Agriculture and Human Values
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：March 2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：34
• 期：1
• 页码：149-166
• 全文大小：
• 刊物主题：Ethics; Agricultural Economics; Veterinary Medicine/Veterinary Science; History, general; Evolutionary Biology;
• 出版者：Springer Netherlands
• ISSN：1572-8366
• 卷排序：34

文摘

There is growing recognition that land grabbing is a global phenomenon. In Canada, investors are particularly interested in Saskatchewan farmland, the province where 40 % of country’s agricultural land is situated. This article examines how the changing political, economic, and legal context under neoliberalism has shaped patterns of farmland ownership in Saskatchewan, between 2002 and 2014. Our research indicates that over this time, the amount of farmland owned by investors increased 16-fold. Also, the concentration of farmland ownership is on the rise, with the share of farmland owned by the largest four private owners increasing six-fold. Our methodology addresses some of the criticisms raised in the land grabbing literature. By using land titles data, we identified farmland investors and determined very precisely their landholdings thus allowing us to provide a fine-grained analysis of the actual patterns of farmland ownership. Although the article analyzes changes to farmland ownership in a specific historical, cultural and legislative context, it serves as the basis for a broader discussion of the values and priorities that land ownership policies reflect. Namely, we contrast an ‘open for business’ approach that prioritizes financial investment to one based on a land sovereignty approach that prioritizes social investment. The latter has greater potential if the aim is ecological sustainability and food sovereignty.