The fundamental reason for investing in animal husbandry, rather than direct agriculture, in this currently largest high-quality farm in the world is that in the next few years, when genetically modified technology achieves a qualitative breakthrough, global agriculture will be controlled by a few agricultural giants. The most well-known are the four major grain merchants ABCD.
Agriculture, as every country in the world has its own special products, is theoretically almost impossible to be controlled by a monopoly group. No matter how unfavorable a company is, it can only control a region at most, because this requires sufficient influence. , and no company can have global influence, not even in some regions. Even the American oil giants cannot have the influence to control a certain lifeline of their European allies.
This was indeed the case for global agriculture before the 1970s. The major agricultural producing countries controlled their own land. Even South America, known as the backyard of the United States, controlled its farmland. Even in this era, any capital can go wherever it wants. Buying land in South America, but the agricultural giants in the United States do not have the ability to buy enough land in Brazil and Argentina. This is basically impossible.
However, with the emergence of genetically modified technology, high technology has begun to affect the entire agriculture. Through genetically modified technology, we can produce seeds that have higher yields, are more resistant to cold, heat, drought, and are not afraid of certain bugs or plant infectious diseases. Once the seeds are planted, the productivity of crops will be greatly increased.
So should countries in South America, Asia or Eastern Europe use genetically modified seeds?
They don’t have to use it, they have no choice, because if you don’t use it, others will have high yields and low costs. In the international market, competition is nothing but death. In the end, without a choice, agricultural countries around the world are not allowed to purchase such seeds. .
However, monopoly groups like ABCD use special technologies to prevent these seeds from breeding the next generation, or the production capacity of the next generation after breeding is very low, forcing agricultural countries around the world to gradually rely on them completely.
This is only the first step. The second step is to lock in all the production capacity in a region through annual procurement contracts. Even if you are short of food, sorry, your country is suitable for growing cotton, so you can all grow cotton. As for food , I can sell it to you at a high price.
This was also the case in later generations of Brazil, Argentina, some agricultural countries in Eastern Europe, and some countries in Asia. For example, the more famous Sri Lanka and Lanka went bankrupt. One of the reasons was that local agriculture was controlled by international giants, and subsequently they could not buy it due to the severe shortage of foreign exchange. Food, triggering bankruptcy.
The third step is to use seeds and contracts to control global production capacity, and then use this production capacity to fight against countries that have sufficient control over agriculture. For example, this is the essence behind the soybean incident in 2004.
In this process, many small and medium-sized countries have lost their food autonomy. For example, many countries in Africa have been able to achieve self-sufficiency in agriculture for many years. However, due to the Great Plains farms in Europe and the United States + genetically modified technology, the cost has been greatly reduced, and these grains have been dumped. In Africa, ordinary African farmers could not make any money at all, and in the end they stopped farming at all.
Once there is a problem with global food or is maliciously manipulated in any year, Africa will suddenly be short of food. However, local agricultural cultivation takes time. In addition, farmers change careers, have no agricultural tools, and the land is abandoned. It is impossible to recover in a short time. , in the end, either a huge amount of foreign exchange will be spent to purchase expensive food, or famine will occur. In a few years, Africa will have a huge famine. Weather and other factors are secondary. This is the essential reason.
In fact, except for some desert areas, the land in Africa is very fertile, no less fertile than that in the mainland. Although the locals may not be as hard-working as the Chinese, even animals know how to store food for the winter. How could they not know this? However, in the international After years of dumping by the agricultural monopoly consortium, we can only let others take advantage of us.
In the future, there will be few countries in the world that can independently achieve agricultural independence.
Under the general trend, Chen Zhiwen will not continue to do the most basic agricultural planting at this time. Although it is not unprofitable, he has no control over it. He might as well engage in animal husbandry. Although meat is also controlled by others, this market No one can rely on high technology to monopolize. They still have a certain degree of autonomy, and agricultural investment is larger and the risks are higher.
Besides, when Costco becomes large enough, its internal meat consumption will be huge, and it will be feasible to supply itself.
After acquiring Wage Farm, Chen Zhiwen became one of the largest farmers in the world with just this farm. However, this was just the beginning, because there were also several large farms in South America interested in selling.
After 1980, the oil crisis devastated the global economy to a high degree. In order to protect themselves, European and American countries raised interest rates and drained large amounts of foreign exchange from developing countries. You must know that generally developing countries develop with debt. Now, with the loss of domestic foreign exchange, the increase in debt interest, the deterioration of the internal economy, and the need for more funds to purchase oil, South America is already facing a very serious sovereign debt crisis under the attack of many parties. Many rating agencies in the United States have downgraded South America many times. The country's credit rating has caused the crazy depreciation of South American currencies and will intensify the loss of local foreign exchange.
In this case, in order to obtain U.S. dollars, South American governments are eager to sell state-owned farms. One of the methods is to sell state-owned farms. Even the edges of the Amazon forest can be enclosed and the trees inside belong to investors as long as they pay for it. , after cutting it down and selling it for money, it can be developed into farms, and other abandoned land can also be sold.
Whether it is state-owned farms, the edge of the Amazon forest, or wasteland, Chen Zhiwen is more interested in it. It is not that the wasteland here cannot grow food, and the large grasslands are not short of water, but because there is no one nearby, they cannot be developed. That’s all.
Nowadays, when buying land in South America, it is still a freehold property. When the South American government is short of money, it will hoard the land first and not develop it, or develop it less. Later, when its own capital reaches a higher level, it can then develop these lands.
However, the farms in South America, even those that are in use, are far less than the area and quality of Wage Farm, and there are many of them. Chen Zhiwen will not visit every one of them. This matter is left to Henry Morgan. It is convenient for him as an American to come forward to do this, and to acquire large-scale farms or land in South America, he also needs to rely on loans from JPMorgan Chase, which kills two birds with one stone.
Of course, for supervisory reasons, Chen Zhiwen sent several Hong Kong Chinese to follow them to play a supervisory role, and then reported to himself at regular intervals.
After arranging everything, Chen Zhiwen took his private plane and flew directly from Texas to Hong Kong.
PS: It’s the last day, please ask for monthly tickets.
Recommend a book: "I'm not doing galgame"
This book tells the business story of making games in Japan. The author is better at writing about games and daily life.
However, he was rather unlucky. A similar book was reported and closed before.
Then it was overhauled and rewritten, and it was reported again, but it was not blocked. All the recommendations before it was put on the shelves were gone, and it was put on the shelves directly.
Then I encountered the COVID-19 infection just after it was released. I asked for leave to rest and went to the hospital for a check-up. My high blood pressure was very serious and I had to be hospitalized.
Now that it has been restored, the book has started to be updated, and the quality is pretty good. You can check it out.
(End of chapter)
