Part 3: US Farmland Real Estate Trends

USDA Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, expressed concerns over farmland loss due to urbanization and renewable energy development. Farmers National Company, Senior Vice President of Real Estate Operations, Paul Schadegg gives more insight on renewable energy development in part three of this four-part series on farmland real estate trends.

“Another thing of note is that when we start talking about these renewable energy initiatives, some of those are going to take up land. And that will add to that loss of ag land going to a solar panel project that will take up 1000s of acres, the wind towers also they're not as they don't take up as much footprint as what solar projects do. But still, that's that's going to play into part of it into that sprawl.”\

Schadegg explains that landowners must determine if the project is viable and fully comprehend the lease agreement terms before the decision falls to the farmer. And ultimately, it is the farmer who decides the price.

“If it involves a project that's very viable and probably going to get built. The developers are usually pretty aggressive and they want that land they need that land to complete a project. So typically, the price is being thrown out or high above market value is what we're seeing.”

Coming up in tomorrow's fourth and final report. We talked about land being lost to urban foreign investment.