By Michael B. Dwyer

Introduction: Laos and the global land grab
In August of 2008, the head of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization shocked the world when he described a recent spate of transnational farmland investment as “a neocolonial pact for the provision of non-value-added raw materials” (Diouf 2008). He spoke diplomatically: it was not all such deals, he said, only some; what had transpired was not actually neocolonialism, but merely the risk of it; and it was the implementation of these deals, not their fundamental premise, that was the cause for concern. But Jacques Diouf’s message was clear nonetheless: he was sounding an alarm….