The $3.4 billion pension fund of Sonoma County, California committed up to $125 million to Fiera Comox Global Agricultural Fund to complement its investment in UBS AgriVest Farmland Fund

The South African Government Employees Pension Fund and the country's Public Investment Corporation are invested in a Congolese palm oil business linked to past human rights abuses and land expropriation.

Twenty organisations and allies of communities affected by the Socfin group’s oil palm and rubber plantations express their dissatisfaction with the Norges Bank Investment Management's decision not to divest from Bolloré SE and Compagnie de l’Odet SE

UK pensions funds and asset management companies potentially have up to £37 billion invested in ‘land grabs’ worldwide, according to a report published by Friends of the Earth.

The funds will acquire farms and farmland assets, including permanent crops, arable, and pastoral farmland, and lease to experienced operators across the focused geographical regions of Australia and New Zealand.

A new Swedwatch report shows a lack of transparency and inadequate auditing of ethics and environmental impacts in AP2’s investment in farmland in Brazil. For business reasons, the investment is surrounded by a high level of secrecy, which makes scrutiny from the outside impossible.

New report from Oakland Institute looks at private equity funds betting heavily on agriculture

BPL Pensioen, a Dutch pension fund for agricultural and horticultural workers, has made a fresh investment of €90m in ASR Real Estate’s Dutch Farmland Fund, which owns 39,000 hectares in the Netherlands worth some €2.1bn.

A large Canadian pension fund which counts the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and defence force workers as members has acquired 35 vineyards in Australia from wine group Casella

Dutch Pension fund PGGM has committed between €50m and €100m to a Cargill owned private equity fund that invests in farmland and crop production.

The pension fund is reducing its allocation to real assets from 22% to 17% as it moves its agriculture allocation to zero.

A trio of dairy farms spanning a combined 570 hectares in the state’s north have been listed for sale after more than a decade in the hands of Swedish owners.

Two Harvard-controlled LLCs have deeded over 7,104.74 acres of land in northern San Luis Obispo County, California for an estimated $120.14 million (based upon $132,159 paid in county real estate transfer taxes.)

Roger Ferguson, chief executive of TIAA-CREF, says his firm is increasingly acquiring farmland in the US, Eastern Europe, Australia and Brazil as long term investments.

American pension fund giant TIAA sold its Southern Riverina farming aggregation between Wagga Wagga and Albury in southern NSW to local Australian farmers after more than a decade of ownership.

A Scandanavian pension fund has poured $20 million into Australian dairy farms to help lift stagnant local milk production.

A Swedish pension fund has become the latest of a series of purchasers of Australian farmland, a buying spree which has fuelled public concerns, and raised discussion over curbs on foreign ownership.

Altamiran Ribeiro, a Brazilian land rights activist, told an audience at John Hopkins University about the land takeovers on behalf of corporations in Brazil and the long-term consequences on local communities and the environment.

The state’s retirement system invested heavily in a private land deal that allowed a foreign company to effectively ship Arizona’s scarce water supply overseas.

Norway’s central bank is divesting the country’s $870 billion pension fund of its holdings in four Asian multinationals for palm oil in Southeast Asia. POSCO and Daewoo were excluded for the activities in Merauke, Indonesia’s Papua province.

A US pension fund investor that flies under the radar has continued its spending spree on quality agricultural land in WA with the purchase of two farms in Grass Patch for about $9 million.

Black River Asset Management, owned by food giant Cargill, is targeting $400m for its 2nd ag-focused investment fund. So far, the bulk of the financing has come from a US teachers' pension fund.

Money from pension funds has fuelled the financial sector's massive move into farmland investing over the past decade. The number of pension funds involved in farmland investment and the amount of money they are deploying into it is increasing, under the radar.

Les fonds de pension sont peut-être l’une des rares catégories d’accapareurs de terres auxquelles les gens peuvent couper l’herbe sous le pied, pour la bonne et simple raison que c’est de leur argent qu’il s’agit.

Africa is regarded as the New Eldorado, and is attracting many foreign based private or public investment companies, sovereign wealth funds and even pension funds gradually. Sadly, while foreigners continue to play a major role in growth investments, African pension funds' contributions to this growth are dismal.

For almost ten years, AP Pension has bought farms for DKK 700m (EUR 94m). Now, private equity fund Erhvervsinvest will take over the administration and ”develop” the portfolio.

The results of pension funds’ alternative investments have been passable so far. In the case of farmland, at the end of last year the average total annual return over a 10 year period was more than 10%.

Pension funds may be one of the few classes of land grabbers that people can pull the plug on, by sheer virtue of the fact that it is their money.

Depuis une dizaine d’années, l’argent des fonds de pension alimente un énorme investissement dans les terres agricoles. Le nombre de fonds de pension investissant dans les terres agricoles et les sommes d’argent déployées à cette fin sont en augmentation, mais tout se fait discrètement.

Some pension funds are beginning to question their investments in commodities after accusations that massive flows into the sector have distorted markets, fuelled food inflation and hurt poor nations.