THE "INSATIABLE" DRAGON-REACHING FOR AUSTRALIAN LAND

A country as big as China with 1.3 billion plus population has the arduous responsibility of feeding its growing population by producing enough food to meet their minimum requirement and prevent malnutrition and hunger. As the land availability is not unlimited, increased production can be achieved either by higher productivity through technological breakthrough in agriculture or by expanding the area of cultivation. It is remarkable that so far, the Chinese government has done well in ensuring food adequacy mostly from domestic production though imports are resorted to during times of shortfalls in production. Chinese are adept at working in many third world countries especially in Africa and South America as a part of their foreign aid programs, earning lot of good will in the process besides evolving practices best suited to most of these countries. Extending its reach to other developing countries has enabled it to think in terms of organizing agricultural operations in many countries with lot of lands to spare and produce some of the foods required for its domestic consumption. Latest to be tapped is Australia which has very low population density with plenty of lands to spare and its efforts to "colonize" this country are highlighted in the following report.     

"CHINA would invest billions of dollars to transform vast tracts of undeveloped land in northern Australia for farming, under a plan confirmed yesterday by the federal government. But opponents said an ''Asia food bowl'' would come at the expense of giving Australians access to affordable, good-quality food. Trade and Competitiveness Minister Craig Emerson confirmed that the government was undertaking a joint study with Beijing to examine the policy changes needed for a massive investment by Chinese agricultural interests. Dr Emerson has denied that this means there are plans to ''buy up the farm'' and use imported labour to produce food for the voracious Chinese market, with its 1.3 billion citizens. ''It is designed to lift Australian food production for world markets,'' he said. The revelation, in advance of an official report expected midyear, has caused some consternation in Canberra, where foreign ownership of Australian farmland is a hot-button issue. Nationals senator Barnaby Joyce, who recently pushed for tougher restrictions on foreign ownership of land in a move that was seen as breaking ranks with the Liberals, said that the report would raise hackles in urban as well as regional areas across Australia. ''There is a strong concern in the Australian public about ownership of their farmland and it has a deeper philosophical vein to it than many other things,'' he said. ''It is not only a concern for regional people - it is reflected very, very strongly in urban constituencies.'' While the move by the Chinese was ''astute'', he said it exposed the lack of planning for our own food security since Australia was now a net importer of food and the resulting inflation had an impact on food prices. ''It's not that you'll run out of food, it's the form of food that you'll be able to buy, and that is happening right now. How often do you see people who in the past bought the roast, now buy mince? Why? Because they can't afford the roast, but that was once a staple.'' The question of selling Australian land to a foreign state-owned enterprise could also have troubling implications, according to Senator Joyce. ''It is held by an organ of the government, and governments, especially strong ones like the Chinese, don't go broke - therefore they can hold [the land] in perpetuity,'' he said. Joyce denied his views were xenophobic. ''Look at any other country and see what their controls of [foreign] investment are like and then compare it to ours and you'll see you can't buy [land] in China, you can't buy it in Japan, you can't buy it in South Korea, you're struggling to buy in the United States and there are vastly greater controls with buying it in New Zealand.'' Liberal senator Bill Heffernan said Australians were either ''too bloody tired or too bloody lazy'' to develop the land to ensure our own future. ''I think it's time that all Australians sat up and took notice,'' he said. While northern Australia has millions of hectares of underutilised land - as well as abundant water and good proximity to Asia - obstacles to development have included poor transport links and a difficult climate. Until now, the Chinese have focused on opening up farmland in South America and Africa to meet the demands of the burgeoning Chinese middle class. They are expected to continue to focus on wheat and rice production on the mainland while looking for new sources to meet their increasing needs for beef, sheep, sugar and dairy. It is the consumption of meat, in particular, that tells the story of the food needs of the world's most populous nation. More than a quarter of all meat produced worldwide is now eaten in China. In 1978, China's annual consumption of meat was 8 million tonnes - it is now 71 million tonnes and more than twice that of the United States".

While as a business deal, land leasing for short periods makes sense, most Australians are worried about the long term consequences of Chinese buying the land and becoming its owners. Chinese have a propensity to bring large contingents of labor into the country where land is leased out or bought and create a separate settlement for them near the work site, secluded from the local population. With cheap labor deployed for raising crops, the production cost tends to be significantly lower and this enables them to send them back to China or to the global markets. Interestingly Chinese interests are more in setting up animal farms for producing beef and pork, besides milk and dairy products. It appears that this country is not able to meet the aspirations of people whose purchasing capacity has increased significantly due to rapid economic development during the last two decades. Many experts believe that Australia should not be too much concerned about the Chinese programs as long as there are iron-clad safety provisions in the lease agreements. It must be realized that the low population in Australia, combined with the shortage of labor to work in farms, makes it imperative to seek such temporary arrangements as the one with China without compromising its sovereignty .

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

A KITCHEN FOR RENT-DO FOOD BUSINESS WITHOUT INVESTMENT!

America is a country where enterprising people can always find opportunities to make money if willing to work hard. If there is a country which has established the advantages of private enterprises in boosting national wealth it is the US where government rarely gets into business activities. In contrast the situation in a country like India is that most people look towards government for helping them out through incentives, concessions, subsidies etc. Here is an example of some innovating entrepreneurs who, after being left to fend for themselves because of the recent economic downturn, were able to set up a "rotating kitchen" for making specialty food preparations for selling locally to keep themselves occupied and make a decent living.

"On a block in Long Island City, Queens, shared by car washes, plumbing parts manufacturers and livery-car garages, the three, as well as other cooks, pay by the shift to use a commercial kitchen equipped with 80-quart mixers, deep-frying caldrons and walk-in ovens, churning out food they sell on the Web and at farmers' markets and coffee shops. The kitchen's 5,500-square-foot work space is both a refuge for dreamers and a life preserver for the unemployed. "There are a lot of career-changers here, a lot of casual gourmets who channeled their energies into cooking as a way to make money," said Meg LaBarbara, a former travel consultant who makes dips and spreads at the kitchen, called the Entrepreneur's Space, on 37th Street near Northern Boulevard. Working at a hedge fund, Ms. Angebranndt, 35, had organized meetings and retreats for high-level executives. After the fund shut down in 2008, she invested her severance pay and savings in whoopie pies, adapting her grandmother's cookie recipe and her own fillings — no marshmallow, but a dozen flavors of butter cream. "I started out making cakes for my friends, then I asked them to spread the word, and next thing I knew, I was cooking at home until 2 in the morning," Ms. Angebranndt said. "I figured, there's less money, but also less stress and more fun." Ms. Patel, 32, worked as a civil engineer for Bermello Ajamil & Partners, which is based in Miami, and was involved in the development of artificial islands off the coast of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates until she was laid off last year. The idea to make sweets to sell first occurred to her while she was still in Dubai, where she said chocolates are packaged and consumed as if they are luxury goods. Once she lost her job, she put the idea into action, cooking in her mother's kitchen in Passaic, N.J., before moving to the commercial kitchen in Queens. It is too early to know if whoopie pies or Indian treats will be lucrative, but neither Ms. Angebranndt nor Ms. Patel is worried about that".

The idea of a common kitchen with high class facilities for various operations like cooking, frying, baking etc offers immense possibilities for entrepreneurs with inherent food preparation talent to try out different recipes and combinations to evolve novel foods with exciting features. Such facilities will also be a boon to the urban dwellers in providing diverse tastes and flavors different from routine preparations offered by regular restaurants. Similar kitchens in major cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and other urban areas can provide relief to versatile graduates coming out of the catering colleges who may not find a job as Chef in regular hotels challenging but can exploit their talent in creating new foods to the fullest extent possible..

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

GREEN RUSH-WHAT IS THAT?

World is never short of nice sounding jargon which can attract large audiences. The latest in this jargon dictionary is "green rush" which refers to the emerging trend of seeking land in Africa for cultivation of food by many resource limited countries mostly for their own benefits. Though some refer to this trend as "land grab", it may not be as simple as that because investors spend money for reasonable returns and obviously not for charity. If these experiments, if you can call it so, helps the countries leasing out land by raising the land productivity and increasing food availability for the local population, there should not be any objection from the world community to such mutually beneficial deals.

"The move takes place against the backdrop of an international rush for African land. Large tracts of land are being snapped up by cash-rich but resource-poor countries, as well as by countries struggling with the burden of feeding their swelling populations. Whether it is land for food production, or as some reports suggest, for bio-fuels, alarms bells have begun to ring about whether this investment in African land is a threat or a gain for the continent".

It is interesting to see India also included in the grabber's list along with countries like China, Korea, UAE, Saudi Arabia, etc and the Indian interest is mainly on account of the perennial shortage of edible oils and pulses that are considered essential, being experienced during the last 3 decades. International bodies must evolve some guidelines for such cross border land leasing to prevent local population from exploitation.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com