Land 'grabbing' U.S. buying up large tracts.

• Position: Worldview

Since 2000, more than 36,000,000 hectares--an area about the size of Japan--have been purchased or leased by foreign entities, mostly for agricultural use, and mostly by the U.S. Today, nearly 15,000,000 hectares more is under negotiation, maintains Worldwatch Institute, Washington, D.C.

"Farmland is lost or degraded on every continent, while 'land grabbing'--the purchase or lease of agricultural land by foreign interests--has emerged as a threat to food security in several countries," writes Gary Gardner, contributing author of "State of the World 2015: Confronting Hidden Threats to Sustainability."

The largest investor country is the U.S. America alone has acquired about 7,000,000 hectares worldwide. Malaysia comes in a distant second, with just over 3,500,000 hectares purchased or leased.

About half of grabbed land is intended exclusively for use in agriculture, while another 25% is intended for a mix of agricultural and other uses. (The land that is not employed for agriculture often is utilized for forestry.) Land grabbing has surged since 2005 in response to a food price crisis and the growing demand for biofuels in the U.S. and the European Union. Droughts in the U.S., Argentina, and Australia have driven further interest in land overseas.

"Today, the United Nations Food & Agricultural Organization reports that essentially no additional suitable [agricultural] land...