Wall Street financiers now interested in channeling billions of new dollars into cropland include heavy hitters like UBS, Morgan Stanley and Rabobank.
TIAA-CREF owns agricultural land in the US, Australia, Brazil and central and Eastern Europe, most of which is leased out.
Indigenous Papuans are reeling from the cut-price sale of the land and forests that are their lifeblood
Swedish, Norwegian and Dutch investors in Mozambique land grab: powerful new documentary gives a compelling visual portrait of how investment by private financial players can undermine food security and human rights in developing countries.
Pension funds try to adopt a sustainability perspective when investing in farmland abroad, but there is not much consensus on what it means and how to measure it.
Anuradha Mittal, Executive Director of the Oakland Institute, argues that the time has come for a more holistic discussion of land deals that places transfer of land in both the developed and developing worlds along the same continuous spectrum.
Some liken farmland investment to real estate and infrastructure 20 years ago.
- Economist
-
03 January 2015
The notorious reluctance of Australian superannuation funds to invest in agriculture because of perceptions it is too risky, volatile and low-return may be slowly changing, according to key farm and food industry players.
- The Australian
-
21 November 2016
Posco International’s new zero deforestation policy comes after years of pressure from NGOs and the divestment of its shares by Dutch and Norwegian pension funds.
The Covid-19 pandemic and a general trend towards ESG investing are pushing more institutional investors, particularly pension funds, to look more closely at farmland investments.
PSP, one of Canada's largest pension investment managers, now adds a further 40,000 hectares to its large farmland holdings in New South Wales.
The PRI for Farmland are supposed to an opportunity for communities and CSOs to assess the performance of investors in farmland against a set of voluntary standards, but fall short of what’s needed to hold companies properly to account.
A new report by Greenomics Indonesia documents how the Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate threatens peatland and forest in Papua province, Indonesia.
- REDD Monitor
-
17 February 2012
Jeremy Grantham of US asset management firm, Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo and Company (GMO), says global investors should have 30% of their portfolios exposed to natural resources, with half of that in forestry and farmland, to take advantage of the growing global food crisis. That is double today's averages.
- Top 1000 Funds
-
03 August 2012
Many of the world’s biggest pension funds as well as family offices of wealthy individuals –looking for diversification and steady returns in times of market volatility– have been pouring money into farmlands, writes Kelvins Tan
- The Edge Malaysia
-
06 December 2012
It takes a gallon of water to produce one almond. And that's not the most insane fact about the mad dash to plant the thirsty trees in the middle of a catastrophic drought in California.
- Mother Jones
-
12 January 2015
San Diego County Employees Retirement Association plans to commit $275 million to $400 million to real assets including agriculture, mining, energy and timber in 2015.
Canadian investors - particularly pension funds - have led the way in changing Australian city money attitudes to agriculture.
- Farm Weekly
-
16 January 2017
New investigation by Global Witness uncovers more than 300 banks and investors back six of the world’s most harmful agribusinesses to the tune of $44bn.
- Global Witness
-
23 September 2019
In the next decade, 400 million acres of U.S. farmland will change hands. A land justice advocate sees a timely opportunity to counteract entrenched income inequality and systemic racism.
- Civil Eats
-
24 February 2020
Quienes actualmente controlan los flujos financieros del mundo no son capaces de apoyar a los productores de alimentos y a los sistemas alimentarios —que pueden combatir la crisis climática o las muchas otras crisis que afectan a la alimentación y a la agricultura. Nuestro desafío es lograr que tanto las tierras agrícolas como el dinero no sigan en sus manos, tan pronto como podamos.
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.
- Illinois Newsroom
-
16 November 2021
Describing itself as a consultant and “master distributor” of products designed “to bring working capital to a variety of projects” – including upgrading farmland overseas and forestry –Intelligent Partnership published a 76 page report on the alternatives sector this week.
- Mindful Money
-
14 February 2013
Canada’s Public Sector Pension Investment Board has made another move to deepen its presence in Australian agriculture, taking full ownership of the largest irrigated farmer in Australia.
Conversaciones con activistas de todo el mundo en mayo y junio de 2022, dejan en claro la necesidad de un movimiento político y social para sacar las pensiones de los mercados financieros, incluso para acaparar la tierra
"The Chinese want a secure food supply, and they're coming into New Zealand to do that, by the look of it," a local farm union official says
Agriculture is suddenly on every end investor’s radar, and many are dipping their toes in the water through pure farmland investment.
- Agriculture Outlook
-
21 April 2010
"The ONLY place where agriculture businesses and investors come together to discuss farmland investment" says the promoters
"The whole mess in Europe at the moment has increased demand for diversification products for the Asian markets," says Aquila CEO Roman Rosslenbroich, including farmland.
SLC Agricola, the Brazil farm operator with large ambitions in farmland acquisition, sealed a $239m cash injection from UK fund manager Valiance Asset Management for a business aimed at turning scrub into "high-quality" farms.