This collection of papers on the “palm oil controversy” focuses on one crop and on one specific region, but the issues discussed in this book relate to a global controversy that has come to be known — and to be criticized — as land grabbing. In the initial surge of reports and studies on contemporary land grabbing there is a dominant assumption that the phenomenon has occurred because of the 2007–8 food crisis, which in turn was largely caused by the emerging global biofuels complex (White and Dasgupta 2010; Franco et al. 2010).1 The changes in the global agro-food system made some financially powerful countries (primarily China, South Korea, the Gulf States) that could not produce sufficient food domestically feel insecure. They started to seek control over large tracts of land overseas to secure food supply. The principal target is Africa, where vast empty lands are thought to be available, cheaply. It is generally assumed that 70 per cent of all land that was grabbed is in Africa. (Inter)national public policymaking aimed at addressing some of the serious concerns in the current land rush (expulsion of peasants from their land, corrupt land deals, and so on) has been under way and is politically contested.