State of Affairs

Why does a famine-ravished country such as Ethiopia export tons of food to the West, when it can hardly feed its own population? And why does the World Bank spend billions of dollars on sustainable development aid, when millions of farmers are at the same time being deprived of the right to use their land? Hoping to achieve high export earnings and secure future prosperity, the Ethiopian government has decided to lease millions of hectares of land to foreign investors. Land that formerly belonged to the locals and local farmers, who now lose everything without any prospect of getting a share of the money the government earns. The harsh and unequal struggle for the green gold of the future – the planet’s farming lands – is fought between speculators and farmers on two different continents. Joakim Demmer sets out to uncover the widely sprawling fields at the heart of this battle, and Dead Donkeys Fear No Hyenas is investigative journalism that will make you jump up from your chair – and shout with anger.