Fascinating piece in Der Spiegel about investors' big interest in snapping up cheap African farmland.

Setting the scene at last month's Global AgInvesting 2009 conference in New York, the German magazine does a fine job detailing this land rush. Yes, there's a little bit of leftish knee-jerkism about this being a new form of Western colonialism, but a good piece nevertheless. More from a conference attendee, Michael Ferrari, in this Seeking Alpha piece. The conference organizers' own take here. Click on the above video for a more cynical view.

The fact is that African farmland is obviously much cheaper than farmland in the U.S. or, say, Argentina. So fund managers, agribusiness people and others — as Der Spiegel describes them, "men from Iowa, Sao Paulo, and Sydney" are huddling and then going out and spending money.

Last month's conference, the mag says, was the first on "the emerging worldwide market in farmland."

A question: If investors who already control sizable shares of U.S. agribusiness snap up enough African farmland, does that mean that suddenly U.S. crop subsidies (which have crippled African farmers' ability to make money through exports) will disappear? A touchy subject, those subsidies.