Keeping Ethiopians down

The most telling fact in the Nov. 23 front-page story "The ultimate crop rotation," on foreign firms farming land in Ethiopia, is at the story's end: Ethiopians cannot own land.

If they could, Ethiopian farmers would be able to leverage their land's value, upgrade their agricultural practices, expand and prosper.

Any government that refuses to recognize and guarantee private property will forever govern an impoverished people. If Ethiopian farmers could own their land, there would be little need for foreign farmers.

Philip D. Harvey, Cabin John