Fields of Power is a four-part podcast series is created by Ian M. Cook, Péter József Bori and Noémi Gonda.
Here is episode 2! “The Land Grab Chronicles” moves from the aisles of a Hungarian supermarket into the hidden machinery of a political-economic system where land, food, and power are tightly intertwined.
Episode 2: The Land Grab Chronicles
Péter and Ian begin by tracing the products of powerful political-economic elites – Hungary’s oligarchs – whose companies dominate everything from dairy to wine. But the question they pursue is bigger: how did land become the key to their power, and why does it matter for Hungary’s future?
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Episode 2 of Fields of Power shows how oligarchs and their allies used state-engineered land auctions to accumulate vast tracts of farmland, a process made highly profitable by EU subsidies that reward ownership rather than cultivation. Drawing on the investigations of former state secretary József Ángyán, it reveals how fields intended for family farmers were channelled instead to regime loyalists. Through Ángyán’s story – his widespread recognition in the countryside, his disillusionment inside the government, and the retaliation he faced after exposing corrupt government practices– the episode traces the mechanics of a system designed to concentrate land in political hands.
But it also turns to the people living with the consequences. Éva, the organic farmer from Kishantos, recalls how the promise of family farm-oriented reform collapsed into what she describes as organised robbery. Noémi Gonda, a university researcher helps unpack why land is not just another asset but a form of power that shapes food security and democratic life. And Logan, an organic farmer and agroecology advocate, explains how subsidy-driven land ownership encourages monoculture and mega-farms while pushing out those who actually care about the soil.
What emerges is more than a story about property: it’s about how land grabbing undermines democracy, weakens food sovereignty, blocks climate-resilient farming, and shapes the future of Hungary and Hungarians.
Transcript Episode 2 Fields of Power
Show notes
Fields of Power was researched and produced by Ian M. Cook, Péter Bori and Noémi Gonda. The research for this podcast was financed by the Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development Formas under grant agreement numbers 2018-00442 and 2024-00448. The podcast has been narrated by Péter Bori and Ian M. Cook. Sound design and audio editing was Ian M. Cook. The music is Solar Fractal by Quarksstar and Xenas Kiss/ Medeas Kiss by MWIC. The executive producer of Fields of Power is Noémi Gonda.
Selected reading
Ágh, A., The Decline of Democracy in East-Central Europe. Problems of Post-Communism, 2016. 63(5-6): p. 277-287.
Ángyán, J., Állami földprivatizáció – intézményesített földrablás [ State-led land privatisation- institutionalised land grabbing]. 2015.
Antal, A., Authoritarian populism, environmentalism and exceptional governance in Hungary. Politologický časopis – Czech Journal of Political Science, 2021. 3: p. 209-228.
Bori, P.J. and N. Gonda, Shattering the Chains of Rural Repression, in Rural Europe Takes Action: No More Business As Usual, H. Lorenzen and O. Moore, Editors. 2022, Forum Synergies and Arc2020: Brussels p. 142-147.
Bori, P.J. and N. Gonda, Contradictory populist ecologies: Pro-peasant propaganda and land grabbing in rural Hungary. Political Geography, 2022. 95(2022): p. 1-3.
Bozóki, A. and D. Hegedüs, The rise of authoritarianism in the European Union: A hybrid regime in Hungary, in The Condition of Democracy. 2021, Routledge: London, UK. p. 143-165.
Czibere, I. and I. Kovách, State Populism in Rural Hungary. Rural Sociology, 2022. 87: p. 733-757 DOI: 10.1111/ruso.12407.
Fidrich, R., Hungary. The Return of the White Horse: Land Grabbing in Hungary, in Land concentration, land grabbing and people’s struggles in Europe, J.C. Franco and S.M. Borras Jr, Editors. 2013, Transnational Institute: Amsterdam, Netherlands. p. 128-147.
Gonda, N., Land grabbing and the making of an authoritarian populist regime in Hungary. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 2019. 46(3): p. 606-625.
Gonda, N. and P.J. Bori, Rural politics in undemocratic times: Exploring the emancipatory potential of small rural initiatives in authoritarian Hungary. Geoforum, 2023. 143: p. 1-13.
Gonda, N. and P.J. Bori, Energy justice without democracy? Energy transitions in the era of right-wing authoritarianism in Hungary. Energy Research & Social Science, 2025. 129.
Greenpeace. Fighting a government-assisted land grab with #peoplepower in Hungary, 2014.
Kay, S., Land grabbing and land concentration in Europe. A Research Brief. 2016, Transnational Institute: Amsterdam.
Krasznai Kovács, E., Surveillance and state-making through EU agricultural policy in Hungary. Geoforum, 2015. 64(Supplement C): p. 168-181.
van der Ploeg, J.D., J.C. Franco, and S.M. Borras, Land concentration and land grabbing in Europe: a preliminary analysis. Canadian Journal of Development Studies / Revue canadienne d’études du développement, 2015. 36(2): p. 147-162.
Look out for the episode 3 next Monday!
Noémi Gonda is a researcher at the Department of Urban and Rural Development at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. She holds a PhD from Central European University. She is currently doing research on justice and conflict resolution in resource management as well as on the linkages between natural resources depletion and authoritarian populist political regimes. Her empirical research field sites are in Nicaragua and Hungary. Previously to becoming a researcher, she worked in Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala with smallholder farmers, indigenous groups and international organisations. Noémi is particularly interested in exploring how radical social and environmental transformations towards justice and equity can emerge, and the role of scholar-activists in supporting the emergence of such transformations.
Ian M. Cook is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at Dublin City University, a member of the Allegra Lab editorial collective, a volunteer at Budapest’s Open Learning Initiative (OLIve) and a freelance scholarly podcaster.
Péter J. Bori is a PhD candidate at the Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy, Central European University, working on climate change and environmental politics within authoritarian illiberal political contexts. He is a Europaeum Scholar, also conducting research on energy justice in Hungary within a project funded by the Swedish Research Council on sustainable development.
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