Right now, some of the world’s biggest financial firms are meeting to discuss how to turn farming into a financial product. Farmland, in particular, has been described as being like “gold with yield.”
Since the 2008 financial crisis, big investors have seen acquiring farmland as a safe bet to hedge their investments. Hedge funds, banks, and pension funds are buying farms outright. The pension fund TIAA, which is one of the main sponsors of this week’s Global AgInvesting Conference, actually owns over 1.5 million acres of farmland worth $8 billion, making it one of the largest investors in farmland in the world.
source: https://www.actionaidusa.org