Farmland Ownership – Kelp4less

Posted on November 12, 2018

The Changing Face of Farmland Ownership

Touch the Soil News #1169 (Feature photo – Fig Tree -CCA SA 3.0 Unported) Gladstone Land is a company that specializes in owning farms and leasing them back to qualified operators. In a press release, Gladstone just announced it had acquired a 951 acre farm in Madera County, California. The farm includes 715 acres of fig trees and 224 acres of pistachio trees. The land will be leased to The Specialty Crop Company for 8 years to do the actual farming. The Specialty Crop Company touts that it is the world’s largest grower of fresh and dried figs. Gladstone reports that fig and pistachio trees can potentially remain in peak…

Posted on September 19, 2018 September 19, 2018

No Global Food Trade – Own the Farm

Touch the Soil News #1126 (Feature photo – Saudi Arabian Desert – CCA SA 3.0 Unported) Saudi Arabia doesn’t have enough water or farmland to feed itself. It is a food-dependent nation of some 33 million people. Saudi tried to be more food self-sufficient by encouraging agriculture at the expense of using up four fifths of its total groundwater reserves by 2012. Given the infiltration of speculation into the global food chain, Saudi wants to own or control farmland in other countries. Saudi Arabia is close to inking another deal in the Ukraine that would bring its farming operations there to almost 500,000 acres. That is equivalent to a farm…

Posted on February 27, 2018

Farmland – Competition is Heating Up

Touch the Soil News #949 (Feature photo – Geographical Map of China – GNU Free Doc License) Over the past few years, foreign investors looking to own farmland continues upward. The nation of Australia is caught in a political turmoil. The Australian government’s recent investigation shows that Chinese ownership of Australian farmland has grown from 3.7 million acres to 36 million acres. That is equivalent to a farm 60 miles wide and 100 miles long. In France, Chinese billionaires are buying up vineyards. Recently, a 4,200 acre parcel of prime food-growing farmland in central France was – through legal manipulation by attorneys – sold to Chinese interests. The sale caused…

Posted on December 5, 2017

The Farmland of Things

Touch the Soil News #879 (Feature photo – Walnut – CCA SA 2.5 Generic) It is interesting to follow a change of ownership when it comes to farmland. Recently, 5,100 acres of prime farmland in California changed hands. The land was planted in high-value nuts to include almonds, pistachios and walnuts. The land sold was owned by Olam International, the world’s third largest agri-business with approximately 70,000 employees. Olam operates from seed to shelf in 70 countries, supplying food and industrial raw materials to over 23,000 customers worldwide. Olam is one of the world’s largest suppliers of cocoa beans and products, coffee, cotton and rice. The buyer of the land…

Posted on May 20, 2017 May 22, 2017

Billion Dollar Checkbooks Still Buying Farmland

Touch the Soil News #705 (feature photo – Ethiopian women picking beans – source, Executive office of the President of the U.S. 2005) The Australian Government recently released the latest statistics about who is buying Australian Farmland. As of the 2015-2016 farming year, foreign investment in Australian farmland hit $4.6 billion, up from $2.5 billion the year before. It is interesting to see where the foreign buyers were coming from. The top four buyers were: American investors bought $1.3 billion in Australian farmland Chinese investors bought $996 million in Australian farmland U.K investors bought $338 million in Australian farmland Canadian investors bought $240 million in Australian farmland So how…

Posted on October 4, 2016 October 9, 2016

What Can Be Done About the 90 million Acres?

Touch the Soil News #505 In the global rush to own farmland, Oxfam recently reported that more than 1,500 land deals sought over the last 16 years now have contracts and their intended projects are getting up and running. The problem is that these land deals cover about 90 million acres and up to 59 percent of the land is claimed by indigenous peoples. Tractors, bulldozers and corrupt local officials are pushing these indigenous people off the land and often into desperation. Local people in East Africa perform a drama illustrating the perils facing many Africans due to foreign land grabs aided by corrupt local officials (photo courtesy of Oxfam).…

Posted on September 17, 2016 September 21, 2016

Who Is Interested in “Cherry” Picking Farmland?

Touch the Soil News #493 (feature photo – ripe almond nuts CC 2.5) If your contacts are many and people know you are in the business, you can create an agricultural empire by buying good farms. That seems to be the strategy of Gladstone Land Corporation. This Wall-Street investment company – focused on owning productive farmland – was organized in January of 2013. Gladstone made news recently when it acquired two large California almond farms totaling 2,485 acres. The purchase price of $27.5 million represents about $11,000 per acre. The farms are located in Stanislaus County – in the central heart of California. Stanislaus County’s economy is primary agricultural with…

Posted on September 10, 2016

Is Demand for Food Creating a Financial Frenzy over Farmland?

Touch the Soil News #484 (feature photo cc-by-sa-2.0) In 2008, while the focus was on the unfolding real estate crisis, another crisis was simultaneously unfolding. Through price shocks on basic grains, about 100 million people (bringing the total to over 900 million) were relegated to the ranks of the hungry almost overnight. Today, with the multitude of global trade agreements in place, one thing about the future cost of food is certain – food will go to the highest bidder in the world. There were shortages of wheat in 2008 in the U.S., as higher international bidders cleaned out the nation’s stocks. The volume of investor dollars looking for farmland,…

Posted on August 16, 2016 August 16, 2016

The Stakes in Berry Farms Are Getting Higher

Touch the Soil News #461 Many of our parents and grandparents were used to going out in the country and picking berries right off the farm – it was called u-pick. Today, many home gardeners still plant berries and enjoy them off the vine. As an industrial agricultural crop, berries represent a huge capital investment in terms of land, labor, chemicals, fertilizers, harvest and cold storage. The highly perishable nature of berries represents a costly undertaking in terms of transport, extending shelf life and risk of spoilage. The point of this discussion is that berry production requires large amounts of capital – and that’s where Wall Street comes in. While…

Posted on August 7, 2016 August 8, 2016

European Union – Our Farm is Not Big Enough

Touch the Soil News #453 Many nations around the world (and some continents) do not have enough farmland to feed themselves. So whether they import food or try to own farmland overseas, the realization is the same – the homeland farm is not big enough. Friends of the Earth (Europe) recently released a watershed report: The True Cost of Consumption – The EU’s Land Footprint. They wanted to know how much farmland the European Union is short of when it comes to providing food for all of its citizens. Cover of the report. The True Cost of Consumption – The EU’s Land Footprint is the first of its kind in…