Farmland Becoming One Of Wall Street's Hottest Investments

TIME.com:

This is usually a slow time of the year for farm sales. It's past prime planting season. Yet, Sam Kain, Des Moines area manager for land sales at Farmers National, is busy. He has 3 auctions this week.

Read the whole story: TIME.com

Comments

[Nobody78]

02:20 PM on 06/06/2011

The corporate takeover continues under a Democratic congress. Both are parties are bought and paid for, and the majority in this country love to defend their party.

[Nobody78]

02:15 PM on 06/06/2011

Why buy? Just do it like Monsanto does and allow your patented seeds blow in to farms and haul them farmers into court and take their farm for free.

http://www.no-patents-on-seeds.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1&Itemid=27

[logicanada]

02:15 PM on 06/06/2011

Hancock's investment manager Steven Kenny broke his teeth at Wells Fargo. Can't wait to see this bubble burst.

[mbondr1]

11:51 AM on 06/06/2011

Someplace to put the peasants.

[Matt12]

11:02 AM on 06/06/2011

OMG, are they creating new setttlements and appropriating agri land now? NY not enough?

[blindhog]

09:08 AM on 06/06/2011

I see this as the next scam to strip the last remaining bastion of wealth. They already stripped our young and old of their homes and, or home value. They've stripped retirees and near retirees of their investment nest egg, they've chained our youth like indentured servants with a lifetime of college debt.

Mega corporations can contract farmers with fine print and when ready, pounce on the farmer with their lawyers and the fine print and basically take the farm away from the farmer BUT let him work the farm, like the Tennessee Ernie Ford song says, "another day older and deeper in debt".

The REALLY scary part is MORE AND MORE of these corporations are owned by those without the interest of the United States of America at heart.

[Nobody78]

02:16 PM on 06/06/2011

And it was all pre-planned too!

[blindhog]

03:31 PM on 06/06/2011

Are you being sarcastic? If not, I'd like your opinion on who and why.

[April22]

11:58 PM on 06/04/2011

This comes as a surprise?

Is there anything Wall Street wouldn't straddle to make a buck?

With food prices going up and not ever coming down, Wall Street knows a good scam when they see it.

I am surprised they haven't yet found a use for dead bodies.

[zelda777]

05:58 PM on 06/04/2011

Scary...the idea of farmland becoming a "hot investment"...to whom? Agri-corporations who push more factory farming on people...Monsanto...genetically engineered crops....

I'd really like to see a rebound of organic family farms.

[ehorth]

11:14 PM on 06/04/2011

Thank you!! I was just about to say the same thing. The idea of hedge funders and investors who "...have no intention of planting seeds, at least not themselves" investing in our precious farmland for speculation purposes is so completely whacked! With so much of the farmland all along the Mississippi flooded now as well as in Montana, and damage to land from tornados, any area with arable farm land in the country must be considered of top importance for farming. And yes, that makes the price of land go up, but it must be farmed and not used as a Wall Street basketball. F

[JScott]

11:02 AM on 06/05/2011

And don't forget the 'potential' for more urban sprawl. Esp. in California.

[olitenup]

03:03 PM on 06/06/2011

I recently drove north of Minneapolis and was stunned at how much farm land is gone, replaced with cul-de-sacs, and strip malls. Yikes!

[uscangus]

02:27 PM on 06/04/2011

mutual funds, pensions, and retirement plans have been acquiring farm land since 4-to-5 years ago. most astute investors knew that food and water were going to crucial in the next 50 years due to GLOBAL growth.... since it is a real assets, you could still get a return or lease it to the seller and generate slow growth, compared to CD, MONEY MARKETS, AND FIXED ASSETS.

the biggest single land BARON is Ted Turner in the US since the last decade. he knew that food and water will be like oil. whether the economy goes up or down, people still have to eat. they realize it is recession proof.

most investors or pension plans are buying lands in the world for global control of food and water. it is based on supply and demand.

[tjconkster]

01:35 PM on 06/04/2011

Say good bye to the family farm...

John Mellencamp - Rain On The Scarecrow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joNzRzZhR2Y

[olitenup]

03:05 PM on 06/06/2011

The family farm is already gone. I will look for a post from yesterday with a great link.

[frank day]

12:41 PM on 06/04/2011

Yay! More bubbles. We've all go to eat.

[iam99]

11:14 AM on 06/04/2011

Wall Street death becomes you.

[Andy49]

10:23 AM on 06/04/2011

Nothing scares the crap out of me like hearing that the financial sector is really interested in something that is a total necessity for life. The other recent wake up moment was the story on NPR about South Korea forming a company to buy up US grain elevators to lock in prices at the farm.

There should be some things that are sacrosanct and belong to the nation producing then fist and food it at the top of the list. I wonder how long a party will remain in office once the majority of the population can't feed itself due to the cost of food?

[ehorth]

11:21 PM on 06/04/2011

I highly recommend this documentary which talks about the unsustainability of our current farming methods - the use of oil resources in everything from the fertilizer, herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, and even in the GM seeds that are planted along with the huge amount of oil used in the equipment and machinery to run these food production factories shows how fragile our hold is on our future.

http://www­.linktv.or­g/programs­/rebeccas-­wild-farm

Growing food is sacrosanct and we need to treat it as such!!

F&F!

F

[Unrepentantliberal]

10:13 AM on 06/04/2011

Farmland, the next bubble.

[shadow013]

09:50 AM on 06/04/2011

Banksters discover an asset class in flyover country they have not yet trashed! Farm real estate titles are still recorded in county recorder of deeds offices locally, not through the bankster monster of confusion MERS that made residential land title private and secret. Bankster involvement can only bring confusion, sloppiness, irresponsibility to rural real estate because that is their track record.