The Grab
At the Center for Investigative Reporting in Emeryville, California, journalist Nate Halverson reveals that although he has uncovered stories that have put him in peril, his latest 7 year investigation is the one that keeps him up at night. It all began when he started to look into China’s WH Group’s purchase of Smithfield Foods in the U.S., a deal which resulted in China owning one of every four pigs in the U.S., just one example of “The Grab.”
Laura's Review: B
Writer/director Gabriela Cowperthwaite ("Blackfish") lets Halverson take the lead on a story that declares food and water will replace oil as the natural resource the world goes to war over, but not before featuring Rod Schoonover, the former Director of Environment and Natural Resources at the National Intelligence Council, stating that he sees WWIII as plausible.
Halverson expands upon the Smithfield story by traveling to China where he tours the meat processing plants of WH Group and obtains an enormous document stating ‘not to be distributed to U.S.’ right on its cover. This reveals that China Bank, owned by the Chinese government, immediately supplied the immense amount of money required to buy Smithfield as part of the country’s strategy to obtain resources from other countries to feed its people.
Then there’s the case of a 15 square mile Arizona land purchase by the Saudis, one where they are growing hay to ship out of country as livestock feed while draining the underground water supply of an entire county’s local farmers. Climate change will decimate arable land in some places, but Russia stands to benefit as the ice caps melt and they are busy recruiting American cowboys to raise cattle and grab power by controlling food supplies, something Halverson points out is a major factor in their invasion of Ukraine. The investigation continues to grow, requiring Halverson to build a team, bringing on Emma Schwartz and Mallory Newman. They get a prize scoop in what the refer to as ‘the trove,’ ten thousand documents from mercenary Erik Prince’s (Trump’s Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos’s, brother) Frontier Investment Group which appears to be making farm grabs in Africa, most notably in Zambia, but when the group travels to the country to investigate, they find all their names and passport numbers posted in an airport security office and are refused admittance to the country. These are journalists who are so security conscious, they’ve disabled Internet access on laptops.
Back at home, they try to find out who is backing Prince and Emma finds the initials RG, revealing the UAE’s Sheik Tahnoun’s Royal Group is behind the operation. Meanwhile, a Zambian who propelled himself all the way to Georgetown University, Brigadier ‘Brig’ Siachitem, is using his law degree to help his people who are being thrown off of generational lands by 'white farmers.’ Halverson expresses dismay at the utter callousness of these people’s actions and it is difficult not to despair at what wealth and corruption is giving rise to –the formation of terrorist groups. It is noted that Somali pirates had their fishing livelihood destroyed by corporate overfishing.
Is there a solution? Yes, we are assured, there are ways to make food and water sustainable even for the increased world population of 2050. But it is hard to not foresee global catastrophe when we reflect on just how far we’ve fallen short of addressing climate change. “The Grab” may alert some to the dangers of foreign investment, but those country’s needs must also be addressed and if they rely on Westerners cutting back on over consumption, the future does not look bright.
Robin's Review: B
We are in a world where vital resources, like water and food, are coming under the control of the rich and powerful. These faceless companies/nations/individuals use economic influence, coercion, and the use of force with armed mercenaries employed to secure and control those crucial commodities that we all need to exist in “The Grab.”
Documentary filmmaker Gabriela Cowperthwaite, who brought us “Blackfish” back in 2013, has spent the last seven, or so, years putting together her latest on the concerted plan by those in power and the powerful to take over our precious commodities of life.
The story being told here begins in 2014 with Nate Halverson, for the Center for Investigative Reporting, uncovering the purchase of Smithfield Foods by a “private” Chinese company – giving control of one in four pigs raised in America. But, that is just the beginning.
Halverson and his team of reporters investigate the ramifications this purchase – the largest by China of an American company – and what it means. The buying of water, food, land and other of our precious resources by a few powerful entities is just the start of what amounts to the rape of the earth to satisfy the needs of a few.
Cowperthwaitae is preaching to the choir with her detailed accounts on what wealthy nations, like China, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and others, use their wealth to buy those they items they need for their survival. To hell with the rest of the world, by the way, as they take, take, take.
One excellent example is how Saudi Arabian interests have purchased a large parcel of land in Arizona and have systematically pumping out the underground water of that state and shipping it back home. Another case is how climate change is altering the fabric of the land in Russia – global warming opens new lands for exploitation.
The Russian strategy is particularly sinister and destructive – for all. With vast areas of newly cultivatable land available, the plan is not to grow grain to help feed the world. No, instead the plan is to cultivate grazing land to grow more beef to meet the wealthy nations’ demands. Russia, under Putin’s control, is importing American cowboys to show them how it is done. And, we know how extremely bad beef production is for the environment.
The devil is in the details, as they say, and Cowperthwaite and her team give us all of the gory nuts and bolts about what we eat and drink and where we can live. In this new order, the rich and powerful will have all the arable land, water and recourses and the rest get the dregs. So, what else is new.
Magnolia Pictures releases "The Grab" in theaters and everywhere you watch movies on 6/14/24.
