New documentary explores global race for resources

S1: Welcome in San Diego , it's Jade Hindman. On today's show , a new documentary takes us into a years long investigation on countries and wealthy corporations hoarding food and water resources across the globe , all in the interest of their national security. This is Midday Edition , connecting our communities through conversation. A new documentary looks at global efforts to control food and water resources as they become more scarce. Sometimes those resources are acquired through business deals and other times through mercenaries stealing land and all of its natural riches on behalf of governments and very wealthy investors. The documentary is called The Grab. Nate Halverson is producer and lead reporter for the documentary. He's also an Emmy Award winning reporter at the center for Investigative reporting. Nate , welcome to Midday Edition. Yeah.

S2: Yeah. Thank you so much for having me.

S1: Glad to have you on. Lots to get into here. So , uh , the film begins with a story you worked on about Smithfield Foods back in 2014.

S2: I had no previous experience looking into food or water. And , uh , I began looking at China's largest ever purchase of an American company , which was a Chinese company buying Smithfield Foods , which effectively owns and controls 1 in 4 American pigs. And Congress was really wondering , what's the deal ? Is this just one big publicly traded company buying another big publicly traded company ? Um , or is there an agenda here from the Chinese government ? And I went to China. And what I was basically able to show was that , yes , in fact , China , as part of their their five year plans , um , had told its its corporations to go overseas and begin securing food and water resources as part of their national security plan.

S1: And let's talk about that a little bit more. I mean , draw the connection between their national security and buying resources around the globe. Yeah.

S2: Yeah. So , you know , China's got about 20% of the world's population , but it's only got about 6% of the world's freshwater. And , you know , 70 to 80% of the freshwater that we use as humans goes just for growing food. You know , it's only like one tenth of 1% of the water that we use is for drinking. The vast majority is is for food. And so when a country begins running tight on water , whether it's really running tight on is its ability to produce enough food. And , you know , China , China has one of the greatest achievements of the 20th century. It pulled three , 400 million people out of poverty in just a few decades and created the world's largest middle class. But as as that middle class was created , they wanted to eat diets more like the Western diet , which includes meat products and meat products require a lot more land and a lot more water , um , to have because you have to grow the livestock feed that you then feed to the animals. And that whole operation just requires more water and more land. And China realized that to meet that growing demand , you know , it would turn to oversee suppliers. And it didn't want to buy just on the spot market , but it wanted to control those resources itself vertically by owning them.

S1:

S2: Of course , we're seeing it in other areas , too , like minerals that are used for batteries that are increasingly going into , you know , our cars , our homes , our many of our products. Um , but in water , resources are the things that are absolutely vital , um , that people cannot live without. And that at the end of the day , governments have learned without , um , creating credible political instability , conflict in , you know , even the overthrow of entire governments. Okay.

S1: Okay. So how did you get from there to a field in Arizona ? You introduce us to a community fighting against a Saudi company producing hay for their cattle overseas. What did you find out there and how did you find it ? Yeah.

S2: So , you know , after I had looked into sort of the , the Chinese example , um , I wanted to know what other countries were beginning to do this. We're seeing the the proverbial writing on the wall. And one of the , one of the countries I was told to look at was Saudi Arabia , because , you know , Saudi Arabia during the 1990s was actually the world's sixth largest exporter of wheat , like a desert nation exporting wheat around the world. And they were able to do that by tapping into these ancient aquifers , this underground water , um , and pumping it to the surface to grow wheat. But those those aquifers aren't renewing , you know , they're just they're from a previous ice age. And eventually they were depleted after a few decades. And , you know , even springs that were mentioned in the Bible 2000 years ago is running to the surface had gone dry because that water just wasn't underground anymore. And so the Saudis had a real problem , which was where are they now going to go to secure their food and water resources ? And one of the places that I discovered they had gone was like the , you know , rural Arizona. I mean , I mean , like wily coyote , saguaro cactus is real desert country. And they were doing the same thing there. They were pumping up the water from underground and turning the desert into Hayfields , and they would grow the hay there and ship it to Long Beach and then ship it all the way around the world back to Saudi Arabia. And the reason for that is because that's how you can move water most effectively. You use the water wherever it is to grow the crop , and then you ship the crop , which is like an encapsulation of water , which again , you know , we use about 70 to 80% of our freshwater to grow food. So it's the most effective way to move water around the world.

S1: And to be clear , with all this technically legal under Arizona law.

S2: Yeah this was all technically legal even , you know. Um , you mentioned earlier , um , sort of that people were stealing and , and even in the cases I find elsewhere in the world , you know , where where courts have ruled that the land was taken inappropriately , they hardly ever used the word stealing because it's done under sort of an auspice of some kind of legal framework or business endeavor. Um , what you'll see is that sometimes the paperwork or there is corruption involved or things weren't done properly , and then the courts have to contend with what folks do. But by and large , the laws , you know , here in the United States , which are sort of hyper local , you know , either based within a state or even sometimes a county. Um , the United States has no national water policy. Um , but by and large , the the laws here and the laws around the world for many places , not all , but for many places haven't really kept up with this idea Desire that , um , big investors and other countries are coming to sort of grab or control these water and food supplies.

S1: But just because there's no , like , policy in place does that. I mean , what laws would you apply to a situation like that ? Yeah.

S2: And in the case , you know , we we , we travel to Zambia to show what's happening to a rural community there who has also seen a large foreign farm come in. And in that case , not just taking , you know , a foreign farm that's not just utilizing the local water , but is actually removed people physically from their ancestral land and effectively dumped them on the side of the road with a very a deadly outcome. Um , in just in the terms of people can't , you know , they've now been deprived of their water and their food resources. And in that case , you know , the investor had some argument to say we went through the local process to do it. And in many cases around the world. What you see is , is that these are rural communities without really disposable income or strong connections to the justice system. And so , you know , even in a country like Zambia that actually has a fairly good rule of law , um , these folks just didn't have access to that. They didn't have the means to go to court to file the paperwork , to hire an attorney. And they were struggling just to stay alive after the incident. Um , fortunately , they met an incredible human rights attorney , uh , Brigadier Shettima , who himself was raised in rural Zambia and , uh , through his hard work , ended up at Georgetown Law School here in the States and , and went back to Zambia to fight for folks who whose land and water was being taken like this all across Africa. And so we we document his legal battle to get restitution , um , for those communities which , which he , you know effectively did do in this one instance. Um , you know , but what Brigg will tell you is that the problem is so widespread that as an individual even working in an organization that's focused on this , um , they just don't have the capacity to take on all of the cases they see of it. Mhm.

S1: Mhm. And in Zambia , what's the reason for taking that land.

S2: It was uh it was foreign farmers , foreign investors. Um , many of them focused on exporting the food to wealthier markets. Um , sometimes there's talk about keeping the , the , the crops in country. But oftentimes in the deals that I've seen in the documentation , um , they will get carve outs that allow them to export a significant , if not all of their production , uh , to wealthier countries. And so you're going into regions , um , where you have a lot of subsistence farming , you're removing those subsistence farmers from the land. They need to provide their food and what cash they can generate from it to pay for their kids to go to school , etc. you're removing them from that source and then allowing foreigners to come in and export that food. Um , and when you back up a step beyond just sort of like , you know , what many people will probably have is a find it an appalling humanitarian situation. Um , when you back up another step and you look at it from a security perspective , from a national security or international security perspective. Um , as Briggs says in the film , people don't forget that. They don't forget when you take their land and dump them on the side of a road. And what ends up happening is people get rightfully angry and they begin organizing as angry people. And pretty soon those people begin fighting. Um , and pretty soon those regional conflicts can become larger , even national conflicts or international conflicts. And so what the intelligence community worries about is that this growing pressure this growing push into regions like this , not to support the local farmers , but to take that land for larger operations , is going to destabilize regions of the world. Yeah.

S1: Yeah. And and I guess , you know , that is certainly one of the larger implications of all of this. Talk a bit more a bit more about these larger implications. Earlier , you mentioned that when you see countries buying up all of the resources that could tank governments. Talk a bit more about how that might work , what we should be thinking about after watching this film.

S2: Yeah , I mean , I think one of the , you know , somewhat known ideas behind the event , about ten years ago now of the Arab Spring , where we witnessed several countries and governments being toppled across the Middle East and Mediterranean and northern Africa was. That.

S3: That.

S2: It ? Those events coincided with what was then the largest spike in food prices , and that many people were taking to the streets in protest of not having enough food or watching , you know , wheat prices continue to climb. And the world Bank had even started what they called the food riot radar to track food riots around the world at that time. And so what one of the conclusions from the intelligence community was , is that when you have these wild spikes in food prices , and people , particularly the middle class in these countries , can no longer afford to feed themselves or their families. They take to the streets and you can have governments toppled. And so governments around the world saw that and thought , how do we prevent that from happening to us ? And one of the ways is to not have to buy food on the spot market , on the commodity market , because then food prices can go up Um , or maybe some countries stop exporting. Um , but to control those farms and those resources directly so that it's their corporations or the government themselves , um , through indirect means , often , um , in control of those food supplies. And I think we began to see countries making moves to control their food supplies , again , as a national security issue. Um , to stave off any instability. Um , you know , should. And when the next , you know , large food price or food scarcity issue , um , comes to the surface.

S1: This is KPBS Midday Edition. We're back after the break. Welcome back to KPBS midday Edition. I'm Jade Hyndman , continuing our conversation about the global landscape of food and water resources. You also mentioned mercenaries in this documentary.

S2: Um , whether those were folks that were supplying logistics and , you know , maintaining supply lines in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars , um , or helping governments or other entities deal with combatants in , in countries that are dealing with regional conflicts. And so corporations , countries are increasingly turning to those operators , uh , to help them go into these regions. Um , from the reporting that we did and the documents that we secured , um , to help get , you know , arable land to help secure food and water resources , um , that these governments and corporations hope they can then export to wealthier communities to.

S1: Help seize it. Yeah.

S2: Yeah. You know , I think to , you know , and I think when you get into the words like seasoned steel , this is the challenge , is that right now , the international community hasn't really come forward to say , how are we going to manage this ? And and what's the best practices. And so the long standing trend has been that foreign capital is a good thing , and you want foreign capital coming in to help develop your farms. And , you know , here in the United States , that certainly helped that that certainly happened. Um , you know , the British helped build the railway system in the United States. Um , you know , we provide a lot of support financially for farmers. And so the rule of thumb , particularly during the Green Revolution , was to get in these large agricultural systems into rural communities. And they might help. Um , but what we're seeing are these examples where these investments are in fact not helping , but are but are creating a lot of hurt. And the intelligence community would say , you know , potentially some really severe instability.

S1: In the film. You say you know , the 20th century had OPEC and in the future we're going to have food pack.

S2: You know , we traveled to Russia and the head of their largest beef company told us exactly that , um , that this effort that he was undertaking with his brother , um , came at the behest of , of President Putin and that Russia would feed the world in the future and it would give them more power than their weapons and their oil does combined. Um , and Russia certainly has that capability. I mean , their water wealth is incredible. They have the largest freshwater lake in the world. Um , you know , what sort of held back some of their production , um , has been just the the short growing season Um , but as as the IPCC report show , um , Russia might be one of the only maybe , along with Canada , countries to benefit from climate change as it's growing season days get longer , um , and they're able to grow more crops throughout more of the year and expand their operations. Um , and so they appear to be leaning into that. And the idea of this food , OPEC goes back before their invasion of Ukraine and before the Ukrainian revolution effectively distanced themselves from the Russian government. Um , they were talking about creating a grain OPEC , um , with the combined resources of Ukraine and Russia , which would effectively make them , I believe , the largest grain exporter in the world. Um , and to be able to use that , um , sort of with geopolitical will.

S1: All right.

S2: Um , it's coming from what we're eating. And so I know that personally , I've gone to a diet that's lighter on meat. And I think about the food implications , and I'm more conscientious about where my food is coming from , um , and trying to live in that more sustainable fashion. Um , and so I think just in terms of people being cognizant of their water use , um , and that that water use that really comes from their food consumption , um , is a great start. And then I think , obviously asking our lawmakers to continue to take this stuff seriously. Um , and to and to keep it in the spotlight will be a big help to , um , both for those of us that live here in California that are dealing with a lot of complex water issues , but also for the people around the world who are really struggling to deal with this big push , whether that's in the Central America , the Americas , Africa , like we show in the film or South or Southeast Asia , and there are a lot of communities that are really struggling with this right now.

S1: I've been speaking with Nate Halverson. He's an Emmy Award winning reporter at the center for Investigative Reporting and producer and lead reporter for the documentary The Grab. The film is streaming online now. Nate , thank you so much for stopping by.

S2: Thank you so much.

S1: That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose. Everyone.