Land Ownership: Book Review
Review by John Green of Who owns the world: the hidden facts behind land ownership by Kevin Cahill (Mainstream, £25)

This is just one of the astounding facts that Kevin Cahill reveals in his extraordinary book.

About 1.5 million farms in the EU are owned by about the same number of individuals (0.42 per cent of the population) and account for 70 per cent of the total acreage and this small group received 70 per cent of the EU farm subsidy – 33,600 million euros. This small European elite gets, directly or indirectly, a massive hand-out for simply owning valuable assets. And as for running an efficient farming business … well, if it were efficient, it wouldn’t need subsidising, would it?

When white settlers arrived in America and bought land from the indigenous inhabitants for a few trinkets and liquor, the Indians laughed at their stupidity. They believed no one could actually own land, but only steward it for future generations! But those white settlers weren’t stupid; they knew land was the key to wealth.

Kevin Cahill has spent years researching land ownership relations and his book is the cumulative result of this meticulous and painstaking work. But he is not a disinterested researcher. He demonstrates how unjust land ownership is, and sees it as the root cause of much world poverty.

Amazingly the Land Registry for England and Wales contains details of only around 50 per cent of land tenure. It only records land transfers since it was set up in 1925, so the big historical landowners are not included. Many of these are aristocrats, like the Duke of Westminster. Most land in the hands of this elite is the result of robbery and pillage by previous generations.

Land defines wealth more accurately than cash, argues Cahill. Income doesn’t make you wealthy, assets do! Of Britain’s official 420,000 millionaires, all have at least 40 per cent of their wealth in land. Agricultural land, though, is becoming less profitable, whereas developing it can be a lucrative undertaking. Many of you will have heard of the unscrupulous land agents offering Green Belt land for sale to investors as “prospective building land”. The Council for the Protection of Rural England gives rural England around 30 years to Armageddon if the present rates of development continue. It will have largely disappeared by 2035, they argue, and much of the country will be tarmaced and built on.

Any country should remain self-sufficient in food production, but Britain appears to be willing to import ever more of its food, while the agricultural sector is ignored. Landowners may make a killing by selling land for development, while many small farmers and agricultural workers are driven from the land because of falling prices paid by the big supermarkets. Those that stay are still paid meagre wages for the long hours and dedication they put in.

Cahilll’s thesis is that the main cause of poverty in the world is inequitable land ownership, as this is the prime source of wealth creation. Surprisingly, though, he doesn’t question the concept of land ownership. In fact, he ridicules Co-operative pioneer Robert Owen for his attempt in the US to set up a community where land was held in common.

Almost by accident in 1872 parliament ordered a complete survey of UK landowners. That survey showed around 300,000 people owned more than one acre, 800,000 owned less than one acre and 27 million were landless. That meant that 4.9 per cent of the population owned 99 per cent of the country. No full survey has been undertaken since then – it’s probably still too much of a hot potato.

This review first appeared in The Landworker (The T&WU newspaper for rural, agricultural and allied workers) February/March 2007) and is reproduced here with permission