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1. Moore, Melissa. “Negative Impact of World Bank Land Policies” __FoodFirst.org.__ February 2005. 2. The FoodFist.org organization works to develop policies around the world that eliminate the causes of hunger. The article was written by Melissa Moore, she has written several other articles on the issue of hunger and the changes in agriculture. These articles discuss the issues of labor on the farm to organic alternatives in Europe. 3. The article is a discussion of the changes brought about after the World Bank began changing traditional land use practices in South Africa. The Bank began dividing the common land to individual farmers. This resulted in a pattern of over grazing, and deforestation rendering the land almost useless to agricultural production. This forced those working the land further below the poverty line as they were forced to repay their loans to the World Bank. 4. The article begins with a description of the changes imposed by the world bank of the farmers. Many of the wealthier land owners were encouraged to sell their land, also much of the common land was sold off to individuals. In order to pay for the purchase of land, the farmers were given loans by the World Bank which they were unable to repay. One of the reasons for this failure to pay was the quality of land that was sold, also the prices. The wealthy land owners only sold their poorest quality land and at higher than normal prices. The farmers were encouraged into this situation by the Bank thinking they would be brought out of poverty with a small investment. 5. ”…. World Bank is imposing a virtually identical set of policies on widely different countries, without regard for their unique histories, cultures, or patterns of land use.” “Rampant corruption means that the prices the poor pay for almost useless plots are inflated by 200 to 300 percent over their true value….” “Not only that, but families are required to put up so much of their own counterpart capital that the poorest - and thus the most in need of land - are completely excluded.”

6. The World Bank works to ensure that its loans are repaid, often there is little concern for the actual condition of those they are loaning to. This can be seen in the blanket land division police used by the Bank across the world. These are polices that were seen to fail in several different countries and only subtle changed for each case. 7. The Bank claims to work to bring people out of poverty with investment and guidance for development. However it has been shown that this guidance is not intended to develop the people for long term sustainability but rather for repayment of the Bank. An example is the blanket land use polices of the Bank. These policies also worked to transfer money and resources away from those who need them most to wealthiest of society. This was accomplished by encouraging farmers into loans they could never honestly repay, their entire small portion of resources were then transferred to the loaner driving those people further into poverty.