Food, drinks firms urged to crack down on sugar ‘land grabs’

Oxfam has urged global food and drinks firms such as Coca-Cola and PepsiCo to adopt a zero tolerance policy on land grabs, most notably among their sugar suppliers.

The organisation’s report, Sugar Rush, notes small-scale farmers and their families are being forced out of their homes. It has noted a global rise in large-scale land acquisitions as suppliers of ingredients such as sugar, soy, and palm oil gear up for greater demand.

Much of this growth is linked to a World Health Organisation prediction that the world’s population will exceed 9bn by 2020.