Oil for Food : The Global Food Crisis and the Middle East

In The Wake Of The Global Food Crisis Of 2008 Middle Eastern Oil Producers Announced Multi-billion Investments To Secure Food Supplies From Abroad. Often Called Land Grabs, Such Investments Are At The Heart Of The Global Food Security Challenge And Put The Middle East In The Spotlight Of Simultaneous Global Crises In The Fields Of Food, Finance, And Energy. Water Scarcity Here Is Most Pronounced, Import Dependence Growing, And The Links Between Oil And Food Are Manifold Ranging From The Economics Of Biofuels To Climate Change And The Provision Of Crucial Input Factors Like Fuels And Fertilizers. In The Future, The Middle East Will Not Only Play A Prominent Role In Global Oil, But Also In Global Food Markets, This Time On The Consumption Side. In Oil For Food, Eckart Woertz Analyzes The Geopolitical Implications Behind The Current Investment Drive Of Arab Gulf Countries In Food Insecure Countries Like Sudan Or Pakistan. Having Lived In Dubai For Seven Years, And Drawing On Extensive Archival Sources And Interviews, He Gives The Inside Story Of How Regional Food Security Concerns Have Developed Historically, How Domestic Agro-lobbies Shape Policy Making, And How The Failed Attempt To Develop Sudan As An Arab Bread-basket In The 1970s Carries Important Lessons For Today's Investments Drive. The Book Argues Against The Media Hype That Has Been Created Around Land Grabs And Analyzes Why There Has Been Such A Gap Between Announced Projects And Their Actual Implementation. Instead, It Calls For A Revision Of Gulf Food Security Policies And Suggests Policy Alternatives. It Is Essential Reading For Academics Interested In The Political Economy Of The Gulf Region And For Practitioners In Governments, Media, And International Organizations Who Deal With Contemporary Food Security And Energy Issues. Introduction -- The Gulf Food Security Predicament -- Pt. I. Gulf Food Security : History, Political Economy, And Geopolitics. Ethiopian Wheat And American Tires : Gulf Food Security And World War Ii -- Rise And Fall Of The Blooming Desert : The Self-sufficiency Illusion -- The Food Weapon : Geopolitics In The Middle East -- Pt. Ii. Gulf Food Security And International Agro-investments. The Global Land Grab Phenomenon -- The Sudan Bread-basket Dream -- Return To The Future : Current Gulf Agro-investments -- Explaining The Implementation Gap : Money, Water, And Politics -- Oil-for-food Policies? Eckart Woertz. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Cover 1 Contents 14 Figures and Maps 18 Tables 20 Acronyms and Abbreviations 22 Note on Transliteration 26 Introduction 28 1. The Gulf Food Security Predicament 36 1.1 The Middle East and the Global Food Crisis of 2008 36 1.2 Social Contract, Subsidies, and Price Controls 39 1.3 Malthus not ante portas: Domestic Agriculture and the Lack of Water 43 1.4 Global Food Prices: Paradigm Shift or Not? 46 1.5 Consumption Patterns and Self-Sufficiency Ratios 53 1.6 Structure of Food Imports: Product Groups and Countries of Origin 55 1.7 Conclusion 59 Part I: Gulf Food Security: History, Political Economy, and Geopolitics 60 2. Ethiopian Wheat and American Tires: Gulf Food Security and World War II 62 2.1 On the Margins: Gulf Agriculture before World War II 63 2.2 The Allied Middle East Supply Center (MESC) 70 2.3 Food, Legitimacy, and Strategy in the Gulf 74 2.4 Inflation, Transport, and Food Security 81 2.5 Beyond the War: Water, Sedentarization, and Power 84 2.6 Conclusion 88 3. Rise and Fall of the Blooming Desert: The Self-Sufficiency Illusion 90 3.1 White Elephants and Horses: The Al-Kharj Farm 90 3.2 Opposition and Ecology 94 3.3 Create Two, Three, Many Al-Kharjs 96 3.4 Self-sufficiency and the Saudi Wheat Bonanza 1970s–1990s 102 3.5 Wheat or Water 110 3.6 Agricultural Development in the Smaller Gulf States 115 3.7 Cereal Programs Elsewhere: Egypt, Iran, Syria, and Sudan 124 3.8 Conclusion 131 4. The Food Weapon: Geopolitics in the Middle East 134 4.1 Food for Peace and Gangsterism by Cowboys: Saudi Arabia vs. Nasser’s Egypt 136 4.2 We Freeze, They Starve: Counter Threats to the Oil Embargo 141 4.3 US Current Account, Inflation, and Food Politics 147 4.4 The Grain OPEC 153 4.5 The Reagan Doctrine of Agricultural Trade 157 4.6 No Oil, No Food: Iraq in the 1990s 161 4.7 Conclusion 165 Part II: Gulf Food Security and International Agro-Investments 168 5. The Global Land Grab Phenomenon 170 5.1 Patterns of Agricultural Expansion 173 5.2 Asians, Arabs, and Asset Managers: The Different Investor Types 177 5.3 Land Grabs and Social Conflict 181 5.4 Conclusion 187 6. The Sudan Bread-Basket Dream 188 6.1 Surplus, Statehood, and Development 188 6.2 The Gulf and the Sudan Bread-Basket Vision 198 6.3 Gulf Capital Buying In 201 6.4 The Basket Case 206 6.5 The Aftermath of a Failure: 1980s and 1990s 214 6.6 The Bread-Basket Reloaded: A Dam Program and an “Agricultural Revival” in the 2000s 216 6.7 Conclusion 220 7. Return to the Future: Current Gulf Agro-investments 222 7.1 Targeted Countries and Crops 224 7.2 The State as Facilitator: Differences between GCC Countries 234 7.3 The Investors: Sovereign Wealth Funds, State-owned Companies, and the Private Sector 244 7.4 Conclusion 252 8. Explaining the Implementation Gap: Money, Water, and Politics 254 8.1 A Land Grab that Wasn’t 254 8.2 The Global Financial Crisis and the SWF Meltdown 258 8.3 Framework Conditions, Water Stress, and Climate Change 260 8.4 Resource Nationalism, NGOs, and Hydropolitics 271 8.5 Conclusion 280 9. Oil-for-Food Policies? 282 9.1 Domestic Policies: Oil, Diversification, Water 282 9.2 Multilateral Regimes: WTO, G20, International Storage, and Climate Change 285 9.3 Bilateral Relations 291 References 296 Index 16 A 330 B 331 C 332 D 332 E 333 F 333 G 334 H 335 I 335 J 337 K 337 L 338 M 338 N 339 O 340 P 340 Q 341 R 341 S 341 T 344 U 344 V 345 W 345 Y 346 Z 346 'Oil for Food' draws on extensive sources and interviews to tell the story of how Arab Gulf countries reacted to the 2008 global food crisis. It argues against the hype created around so called land grabs and analyses the geopolitical implications behind the investment drive of Arab Gulf countries in food insecure countries like Sudan or Pakistan. In the wake of the global food crisis of 2008 Middle Eastern oil producers announced multi-billion investments to secure food supplies from abroad. Often called land grabs, such investments are at the heart of the global food security challenge and put the Middle East in the spotlight of simultaneous global crises in the fields of food, finance, and energy. Water scarcity here is most pronounced, import dependence growing, and the links between oil and food are manifold ranging fromthe economics of biofuels to climate change and the provision of crucial input factors like fuels and fertilizers. In the future, the Middle East will not only play a prominent role in global oil, but also in global food markets, this time on the consumption side.In Oil for Food, Eckart Woertz analyzes the geopolitical implications behind the current investment drive of Arab Gulf countries in food insecure countries like Sudan or Pakistan. Having lived in Dubai for seven years, and drawing on extensive archival sources and interviews, he gives the inside story of how regional food security concerns have developed historically, how domestic agro-lobbies shape policy making, and how the failed attempt to develop Sudan as an Arab bread-basket inthe 1970s carries important lessons for today's investments drive.The book argues against the media hype that has been created around land grabs and analyzes why there has been such a gap between announced projects and their actual implementation. Instead, it calls for a revision of Gulf food security policies and suggests policy alternatives. It is essential reading for academics interested in the political economy of the Gulf region and for practitioners in governments, media, and international organizations who deal with contemporary food security andenergy issues In the wake of the global food crisis of 2008, Middle Eastern oil producers have announced multi-billion investments to secure food supplies from abroad. Often called land grabs, such investments are at the heart of the global food security challenge and put the Middle East in the spotlight of simultaneous global crises in the fields of food, finance, and energy. Water scarcity here is most pronounced, import dependence growing, and the links between oil and food are manifold ranging from the economics of biofuels to climate change and the provision of crucial input factors like fuels and fertilizers. In the future the Middle East will not only play a prominent role in global oil, but also in global food markets, this time on the consumption side. In Oil for Food, Eckart Woertz analyzes the geopolitical implications behind the current investment drive of Arab Gulf countries in food insecure countries like Sudan or Pakistan. Having lived in Dubai for seven years, and drawing on extensive archival sources and interviews, he gives the inside story of how regional food security concerns have developed historically, how domestic agro-lobbies shape policy making, and how the failed attempt to develop Sudan as an Arab bread-basket in the 1970s carries important lessons for today. The book argues against the media hype that has been created around land grabs and analyzes why there has been such a gap between announced projects and their actual implementation. Instead, it calls for a revision of Gulf food security policies and suggests policy alternatives. It is essential reading for academics interested in the political economy of the Gulf region and for practitioners in governments, the media, and international organizations who deal with contemporary food security and energy issues.