Biological

Plantations

We tend to think of plantations as something lost in the past. Slavery a key part of plantations has been long abolished, so the plantations must have gone with them. Plantations - I learned while doing my Masters in Applied PLant Science, from the Ex-Director of the Tropical - were very much still alive. we learned how crops like sugar, cotton, rubber and tea - were all produced on plantations which had moved the 'seed' across the world, to grow on vast acres which had been bought by foreign investors using migrant labour to do the hard work. Not slaves any more, but conditions had not got much better. It was cheaper to hire plantation workers from abroad, than pay for slaves and their families. Coffee and cocoa were a bit different. Coffee was grown with mobile workers and cocoa grown in small farms in West Africa, and protected from the likes of Unilever making them into plantations, by the UK government. I kid you not!. Plantations are by definition Monocrops, Migrants and foreign capital that makes ,pt mpre than smaller farms - Marx said was crucial to capital. From Plantation Agriculture by Courtney  For much more, see my sister site 'Where do our food crops come from'

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Plantations have continued to grow at pace. Cargill: a multinational corporation produce palm oil, soybeans, cocoa, and other crops, while Wilmar International: a Singapore-based company is one of the largest palm oil producers in the world, but also run soybeans and, sugar plantations. Most food traded in the world does not come from small family farms but major plantations owned by companies on other peoples land. Nestle: a Swiss-based multinational  sources cocoa, coffee, and palm oil from plantations around the world. And Unilever, started as the Lever Brothers, now a British-Dutch multinational company sources palm oil, tea, and other agricultural products from plantations.

Forested plantations now used to harvest coffee, rubber, or fruit take up around 1.5 mill sq kilometres – around 3% total land used to produce food.

Some investment companies that specialize in plantation developments include Agricapital: a UK-based company that invests in agriculture and plantation projects in Asia, Africa, and South America, Plantation Capital Group: another UK-based company that invests in forestry and agricultural plantations in Asia, Africa, and South America, and Black River Asset Management: a US-based company that invests in agriculture and renewable resources, including timber and plantation crops. AgroGeneration: a French company that invests in agricultural land in Ukraine, where it grows crops such as wheat, corn, and sunflowers. It is interesting to point out that Ukraine was the ‘goto’ place for much agribusiness investment in the 10 years prior to Russia’ invasion. While there were dramatic increases in yields of grains and oils, there was also increasing erosion - around 500million tones a year, from what is the best soil in the world.

I’m not having much luck finding investment companies specialising in soil health. Or state research

It is noticeable how the mode of production we call ‘plantation’ has migrated out from the tropics to temperate lands. Look at Eastern England, Spain and other areas where outside landowners grow annual monocrops and import labour. Many in the East of England did not like the influx so gave the impetus for Brexit.

We cannot isolate these agricultural practices to determine the overall effects. Much is hard to see. as only 1/3 of plant life is above ground. A further third make up the roots, and a further 1/3 consist of the exudates that help feed the fungi and small soil creatures. The living weight of these exceeds the wild vertebrates above ground, together with massive proliferation of fungal hyphae. Fungi are curious organisms, and not related with either plants or animals.