The £1.9bn pension fund of the UK’s Environment Agency is set to unveil a new investment strategy later this month, including plans to invest in farmland and forestry for the first time.

Passive indices have been replaced by new sophisticated active indices and pension fund managers like APG are investing in natural resources assets, including farmland.

The new Luxembourg-registered Sustainable Resources Fund boasts anticipated potential returns of at least 15% per annum on forestry, agriculture, biomass and land.

Felda Global plans to use the bulk of its proceeds to snap up more plantations in Southeast Asia and Africa and boost its refining and market business in its bid to become a peer to Archer-Daniel Midlands and Cargill by 2020.

At an agriculture investment summit in London on Wednesday, leading U.S. and European pensions funds said few assets remained immune from whipsawing markets, prompting institutions to look at farmland.

Farmland is "an obvious no-brainer choice for most pension funds," according to Savills director of residential research Yolande Barnes.

Joint statement released by more than 60 civil society organisations against the role of pension funds and other financial instutions in land grabbing

International development and environment charities to protest against 'land grab' outside Agriculture Investment Summit

As Europe's debt crisis rattles global equity market confidence farming is being increasingly championed by many as a sound, long-term bet for investors needing a safe haven for their money - particularly superannuation funds.

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.

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 pension fund(!) has seeded(!) a new company (i.e., not a fund!) that will invest its own assets as well as those of peers(!) in actual farms(!) in the developed and developing world!

Investment advisors point to current rise in wheat prices as one more reason to invest in farmland...

The science and environment author discusses a growing global threat

The Financial Times reported this week that TIAA-CREF is developing a new “investment vehicle” that will bet the retirement funds of millions of American on the rising price of farmland around the world.

Indigenous Papuans are reeling from the cut-price sale of the land and forests that are their lifeblood

Financial services group TIAA-CREF said it is partnering with Canadian and European money managers to form a $2 billion global farmland investing company to capitalize on the growing demand for grains and other agricultural products.

La Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec se lance à son tour dans la déferlante d’investissements des fonds de retraite dans les terres agricoles.

On the evening of April 24, following a daylong rally against large-scale land investment deals in poor nations, the Waldorf Astoria hotel in Manhattan became the venue for a 30-minute light show against land grabs in Africa.

Sixty years on, controversial agricultural projects are back in fashion in Africa and other parts of the developing world as investors - from foreign governments to wealthy individuals - hunt for land to grow food.

A global food crisis and rapid population growth are making farmland an increasingly attractive investment. Holly Black looks at the options.

"During my research trips in Africa, I came across posters against the land grab deals," Liberti told IPS. "One said: ‘Future generations will damn your graves, because you did not leave them any land.’"

The World Bank is playing a leading role in a global land grab, says farmers' movement and its international allies.

A policy paper will next week be presented to the annual World Bank conference on land and poverty in Washington DC in the United States, which focuses on the confrontation between peasant producers and investors in the Mozambican province of Zambezia.

India, which doesn’t allow corporate farming domestically, has joined the growing list of countries going overseas to look for food security.

While agricultural land has the potential to provide a source of long term fixed income, the hurdles are enormous. Extreme illiquidity and sensitivity to geo-political risk mean that diversification of holdings and careful selection are key.

The UN has proposed that countries set limits on the size of agriculture land sales to regulate the growing trend of so-called farmland grabs.

The BT Pension Scheme has acknowledged that investing in agriculture land was a "real challenge" due to concerns over accusations of land grabbing.

PKA has defended its investments in African agricultural land, denying they are ethically dubious or constitute "land grabbing".

A global scramble for land and mineral resources fuelled by billions of investment dollars is threatening the last remaining wilderness and critical ecosystems, destroying communities and contaminating huge volumes of fresh water.