Private Equity Firms And Rich Hedge Funds Continue To Buy Up Vast Swaths Of Farmland

The following report is by The Trends Journal:

During that time, their land portfolios grew by 231 percent and the value of those holdings rocketed up more than 800 percent to $16.2 billion, according to data from the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries (NCREIF), which monitors land holdings among the seven largest firms investing in farmland.

Manulife owns 284,413 U.S. farm acres valued at $3.3 billion, according to the firm’s 2022 report. Nuveen holds 751,000 acres at a value of $6.6 billion, its postings show.

Acreage owned by foreign entities increased by 64 percent to more than 40 million acres from 2010 through 2021, the U.S. Agriculture Department (USDA) shows. The value of those holdings doubled to about $72.5 billion over the period.

Farmland’s value has risen with inflation, leasing the land to farmers guarantees a fixed annual return, and has less risk of dropping in value than many other assets, the equity firms told Reuters. Land values also grow along with the world’s rising demand for food.

In 2050, the world will need 60 percent more food than today, thanks to a rising population, the United Nations has forecast.

“It’s a hard asset. It’s like gold. It’s not going anywhere,” David Gladstone, CEO of Gladstone Land, said to Reuters. His real estate investment trust owns 116,000 acres of almonds, blueberries, strawberries, and other crops in 15 states. The holdings are valued at about $1.6 billion.

Over the past 25 years, NCREIF’s farmland index has averaged an 11.4-percent annual growth, compared to the Standard & Poor’s 9.3 percent, according to a recent presentation by Gladstone.

The price of U.S. farmland climbed to a record $5,460 this year, the USDA reported, doubling from $2,700 in 2010. High commodity prices and strong demand for staples such as corn and wheat, among other factors, pushed land prices up, Reuters said.

About 60 percent of U.S. farm acreage remains owned by the farmers who work it, according to USDA figures. 

The growing presence of private equity into agriculture worries several observers.

With investors driving up croplands’ price, “what they’ve done is establish a new floor,” Paul Schadegg, vice president of Farmers National Company, a farm management firm, said in a Reuters interview.

High land prices can deter or prevent young farmers from entering the profession, communications director Tim Gibbons at the Missouri Rural Crisis Center said to Reuters. “If the next generation isn’t enticed to come back to the farm,” he said, “then who’s going to own that land?”

Lawmakers debated this year whether to curtail foreign farmland ownership, concerned that adversaries might buy land to exert political influence. The Senate included a provision to ban farmland purchases by China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea in its version of the National Defense Authorization Act, which has yet to be reconciled with the House version.

TRENDPOST: Saudi Arabia has bought land in Africa and South America on which it grows crops, especially wheat, to feed its desert-dwelling population. Without some form of control, the U.S. could see a growing proportion of its heartland crops exported to foreign governments before they ever reach the market. 

Again, across the spectrum; from banks, hedge funds, private equity groups, venture capitalists, retail chains, hospitality sectors, air travel, food manufacturers and producers, etc., the “Bigs” own it and the general population are nothing more than plantation workers of Slavelandia.

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AUTHOR COMMENTARY

The amount of the land the bigs continue to buy up is just sickening, as they and the media continue to push the narrative that we are overpopulated, and need to be squeezed into compact 15-minute cities; whilst buying up all the important land and resources, and squeezing the honest man and family of integrity off of it. I’ve noted this across multiple articles:

• Warning: Entire Swaths Of American Farmland Is Being Confiscated To Install New “Carbon Pipelines”
• US Climate Czar John Kerry Hints That Farmland Needs To Be Sequestered And Produce Less Food To Meet Climate Goals
• Chimerica: China Buys Up More American Farmlands
• Why Does Bill Gates Continue To Buy Up Even More Farmland?
• Bill Gates Becomes Largest Farmland Owner In America

[10] For he seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others. [11] Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names. [12] Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish. [13] This their way is their folly: yet their posterity approve their sayings. Selah. [14] Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling.

Psalms 49:10-14

Stay patient, brethren, because when this country collapses opportunity may present itself to us.

[34] Wait on the LORD, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land: when the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it. [35] I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree. [36] Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found.

Psalms 37:34-36

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[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).

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