Suppose that, one day, a foreign investor decided to buy a vast tract of fertile land in the United States, with support of the American government. Suppose all that is grown or produced in that land, and all profits made, would be shipped directly overseas. Worse, imagine that those Americans who had been living off that land for decades, maybe centuries, would be forced to move and given little to no compensation.

Such an event would undoubtedly spark the anger and outrage of thousands, if not millions, of Americans. And yet, this scenario is not far from reality — only the roles are reversed. American companies have recently been investing heavily on foreign land, and many involved in the worldwide struggle against hunger believe that is a cause for concern. What investors call “agricultural development” is described by critics as “land grabbing,” which they say undermines food security in developing countries.

As World Food Day approaches, and almost a billion people worldwide continue to suffer from chronic hunger, dozens of NGOs in the U.S. and abroad have started calling citizens to action against these controversial business practices. The Right to Food and Nutrition Watch, a report released last week by a consortium of 13 international civil society groups in over twenty countries, denounces the practice of land grabbing as an aggravator of hunger, depriving the rural poor from access to land and violating their right to food.

“Land grabbing itself is nothing new — it has existed for hundreds of years,” says Flavio Valente, secretary general of FIAN International, one of the publishers of the report. “But recently, the practice of land grabbing has been intensifying and affecting those who are most vulnerable those who depend on natural resources for their survival, such as small farmers, indigenous groups and peasants.”