Community | November 28, 2011 | 20 comments

Report: Investors (China?) buying up US farmland at alarming rate

source: http://www.iowafarmertoday.com/news...

Image
Anonmaly
There are arguably a number of varying factors influencing the mass farmland sell-off currently taking place in the American Midwest. One thing seems certain, though -- America's once-treasured farming tradition is quickly fading into history as the next generation of Americans abandon rural life, and investors come in to snap up their fertile plots of soil in Iowa and elsewhere.

The trend of migration from rural to urban life is nothing new. But what is relatively new is the heightened interest among investors from around the country, and even from around the world, in purchasing US farmland as a type of "hedge" commodity for their portfolios -- and this is especially true as the value of farmland continues its rise to record levels.

A recent Reuters report explains that in Iowa, an agricultural mecca marked mostly by corn and soy crops these days, fertile farmland has become a hot commodity that is attracting many out-of-towners. Unable or simply unwilling to further the legacy of their parents and grandparents, farmland heirs are selling or auctioning off their family land to the highest bidder.

At the same time, demand for farmland is so high that many landowners feel it just makes good financial sense to sell their land. According to the latest figures, farmland prices in Iowa have increased about 24 percent within the past year, and the average per-acre price of cropland across the state is now $5,700 (http://www.iowafarmertoday.com/news...).

Another issue is the exorbitant federal estate tax, also known as the "death" tax, that farm heirs are levied following a farmer's death. This tax, which can exceed 50 percent of an estate's total value in some cases, can force farm heirs to sell some or all of the land just to pay it, which inadvertently forces farming families out of the business whether they want to or not.

And just who is buying all this land? Well, as we reported a few months ago, wealthy investors like George Soros (http://www.naturalnews.com/033319_f...), and China, which currently holds the most US debt currency in the form of Federal Reserve Notes (http://www.crikey.com.au/2011/06/16...) have been busy buying farmland around the world.

In other words, when the ever-worsening economic meltdown eventually leads to massive food shortages, Americans will have already sold their source of food down the river for a heap of worthless debt currency.



http://www.naturalnews.com/034259_farmland_America.html
  1. groups:
    Community,   News and Politics,   Actual News,   Sustainable Agriculture,   3 more
  2. tags:
    Hmmm
  3.     
    |

20 comments // Report: Investors (China?) buying up US farmland at alarming rate

  • ithink
    • +1
      ithink  

    • It,s not just the chinese keep your eye on that billionaire picket who made his fortune in oil and now holds a lot of the natural gas and is now buying all the land he can over the big aquifier in texas so he can control a lot of the water.He considers water to be his next money making resouce whether he sells it to us or just to the highest bidder.

    • 6 months ago
  • gardener52
    • 0
      gardener52  

    • this is scary. maybe the Indians are right and we are at the end of a third life cycle. oldpol2 is right about the seeds. link tv has stuff about it. fasten your safety belts we're in for a bumpy ride.

    • 6 months ago
  • ecoalex
  • lightningthunderfox
  • alexandrek
  • attilatheblond
  • Kelly_Balthrop
    • +1
      Kelly_Balthrop  

    • hmm, I worry about the next bubble. What happens when money chasing farm land dries up in the next recession coming probably next year after Europe collapses. Estate taxes are not that big a deal since you would have to have nearly 2,000 acres before it even kicks in, and there are numerous strategies to either avoid it or off set it.

    • 6 months ago
  • attilatheblond
    • +1
      attilatheblond  
    • Kelly_Balthrop:

      Most people who farm/ranch do not pass the deed down, they sell it. If family wants to buy, great, but most farmers/ranchers are getting on in years (the median age was 55 a decade ago) and will need proceeds from sale of property to live on in their old age.

      Marketing a low estate tax to family farmers and small business owners was just one more case of the Hoarder Class making less secure classes do the leg work of pressuring Congress and keeping up chatter about estate taxes on the radio, although damned few people with incorporated family farms or ranchers would ever be impacted even if they could just give the ranch to a scion.

    • 6 months ago
  • ClassicalGas
    • +3
      ClassicalGas  

    • Pay attention to who's buying up land that includes water rights - this is critical. Do some research into land sales (esp. hog farms) in Iowa. There's a checkerboard pattern of sales that include these.

    • 6 months ago
  • letsliveinpeace
  • attilatheblond
  • letsliveinpeace
  • Nick19
    • 0
      Nick19  

    • China buys farmland everywhere. Just look at the many examples in Africa at the moment and even in Latin America. Not sure why this should come as any surprise. They already do it a bit in Australia as well.

    • 6 months ago
  • letsliveinpeace
  • attilatheblond
    • 0
      attilatheblond  
    • Nick19:

      One figures if the GOP pols and congresswhores gut what's left of the EPA and regulations, the Chinese will be even fonder of US farmland.

      Prison labor paying pennies, pretty much like China, already been here in the US for a long time. With the boom in private/for profit prisons, look for more of it, which shrinks available jobs even more for the working class. Creates a spiral of desperation.

      Newt's child labor push becomes pretty transparent too, when you look at how desperate the GOP is making the American population. It's a dog whistle to foreign investors to donate to Newt for colony president.

      Sure, the kids will beg to work in field for Chinese overlords within a generation. That is how they will avoid starving so soon.

      Figure the Chinese aren't fond of labor unions or half way educated masses either. We know GOP pols aren't serving America's interests.

      Kansas (and others of course) is in for a real jolt when the culmination of far right policies come to fruition.

    • 6 months ago
  • corderodedios
    • +4
      corderodedios  

    • We borrow money from China and it ends up going back to China when we buy their junk, and then they get to use it again to buy up farmland, which is the only real wealth the nation retains. Then the money they paid for the farmland gets used again to buy more Chinese junk. So, what's more worthwhile? Consumer electronics, crappy clothing and shoes, or other junk that breaks down and is discarded, or farmland?

      Many folks giving farmland as a Christmas present this year? Or are people still buying the slave-labor-made crap from China that Madison Avenue is brainwashing us into "needing." Depends whether or not you're a Capitalist on the make, or a true American.

    • 6 months ago
  • oldpol2
    • +2
      oldpol2  
    • corderodedios:

      We just bought a farm 3 years ago. It's a family hedge against whatever may come. We buy very little in Chinese junk. Sometimes it is unavoidable, but we do the best we can.

      Something else no one seems to talk about is what is being done to and with seeds. We use only heritage seeds and we save more seeds than we need to use in the future. there are also very wealthy people (ie: Gates and Rockefeller) who are buying up seeds and have massive seed banks. He who controlls the seeds controlls the world.

    • 6 months ago
  • corderodedios
    • +1
      corderodedios  
    • oldpol2:

      Bravo. Additionally, considering the differential between the price the farmer gets for the product and the price charged in the grocery store after the middlemen and capitalist commodities gamblers and the commission agents get their rakeoffs, if a producer sells direct there's a living to be made.

    • 6 months ago
  • dugdog47
  • MotherForTruth
more from Community:
from the community

top videos