Farmland Investment Depends on Trade

University of Illinois Agriculture Professor and Farmland Specialist, Dr Bruce Sherrick identifies four critical factors when it comes to farmland investment trends. Those factors include population distribution, income levels, soil productivity and shifts in energy markets, all of which play a role in determining the long term value of farmland.

“Where people live, is not changing much either. We're just stacking ourselves up deeper and deeper. So we'll stack ourselves up deeper and deeper in the parts of the world where we already exist. We're not going to fill in the middle of the country with population density like we have in Los Angeles and New York, and we're not going to change the East Asian footprint as being the place where most of the people on the planet live, South Asia and East Asia. So we have to move the food increasingly further and further. We can move that as first level products, fresh fruits and vegetables. Interestingly, the US is now a net importer of agricultural products.”

Ensuring a steady year round supply of produce, such as blueberries and bell peppers, according to Dr Sherrick.

“And then we're going to ship more and more, either corn or chickens or pigs or agricultural outputs, to the points in the world where people consume food. So I think trade becomes the the issue that agriculture is most concerned about getting right.”

Dr .Bruce Sherrick with the University of Illinois.