US

The inflation wave that’s sweeping through the global economy is playing into a investment niche that a small group of people in finance have spent years developing: farmland.

Gladstone now holds 111,000 acres in 15 different U.S. states, and 45,000 acre-feet of banked water in California, growing a variety of permanent and annual row crops.

Le 7 décembre 2020, l’eau entrait à la Bourse de Chicago, ouvrant la voie à la marchandisation de cette ressource vitale. Et surtout à la spéculation.

The Rohatyn Group (TRG), a New York-based asset manager with expertise in forestry, agriculture, and emerging markets, announced it had completed the sale of the Kaiuroo aggregation to RFM for an undisclosed sum.

The growing financialisation of Brazilian agribusiness is enabling foreign investment in the industry most responsible for deforestation - and land grabbing

ADM, Bunge and Cargill are dealing in conflict-tainted soy sourced from producers in the Cerrado, and in doing so are contributing to land conflict and alleged human rights abuses, in violation of their responsibilities under UN and OECD human rights standards.

New CRS Report shows that foreigners own just under 3% of US farmland, led by Canada (accounting for 30% of foreign holdings), Netherlands (14%), Italy (7%), UK (6%) and Germany (2%).

Listen to an interview with Maria Luisa Mendonça of Rede Social on US teachers' pension fund TIAA investments in Brazil land grabbing and deforestation.

In 2013, mammoth US investment company TIAA-CREF gave $5 million to the University of Illinois to fund a research center, branded with the company’s name, that would explore the financial niche of farmland investment.

Institutional investors and foreign countries alike increasingly see U.S. farmland as a sound investment, raising concerns.

A US institutional investor has awarded a US$50m mandate to Australian sustainable farmland manager Kilter Rural to invest in agriculture and water assets.

Big financial institutions rake in profits bankrolling the destruction of the land, homes and livelihoods of communities who have safeguarded their forests for generations