All Agriculture articles
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White papersThe shift in how the world sees farmland: An asset that sits between categories
Investment categories tend to last longer than the conditions that created them. Real estate, infrastructure and private markets were shaped in a period when natural systems felt predictable and globalisation appeared steady. Those assumptions carried portfolios for decades.
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White papersAgriculture and forestry offer investors a path to biodiversity
Institutional investors increasingly view biodiversity loss as a systemic risk, yet investing in solutions remains challenging. The theme feels abstract, projects are small-scale and returns are uncertain. According to Karel Nierop, Head of Products & Solutions at Triodos Investment Management, agriculture and forestry offer a concrete way to start. “By linking biodiversity to sustainable land use, we present a solid business case with positive impact and returns.”
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White papersTimberland investment: growing credible impact
Timberland is meeting rising demand for credible nature‑based decarbonization solutions by providing a biologically renewing resource with diversified revenue streams and the potential to generate high‑integrity carbon credits through improved forest management, conservation, and reforestation. Learn how sustainably managed timberland can offer investors stable long‑term returns and measurable climate benefits, backed by Manulife IM’s 40‑year track record and 5.6 million managed acres.
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White papersMore demand, less land: Supply-demand fundamentals of farmland
Global agriculture is facing a tightening supply of farmland while populations and food demand continue to grow. With these trends expected to persist and even intensify through 2050, Nuveen Natural Capital explores the primary drivers of land loss and what this collision of scarcity and demand means for farmland values.
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White papersA balancing act: how can sustainably managed forests offer investment opportunities while protecting forestland and safeguarding biodiversity?
While the notions of natural capital and nature-based solutions are spreading amongst the investment community, the initial focus has been on a forest’s ability to sequester and store carbon. When it comes to forests as a solution to the biodiversity crisis, very few investors new to forestry investing know what sustainable forest management endeavours to achieve, and why it can indeed be one of the answers to safeguarding biodiversity.
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White papersNothing Burger: The Drivers Behind US Cattle Herd Size Stagnation
Since the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) started publishing US cattle herd size data in 1973, a persistent downward trend has been present through time with only a few local peaks. In fact, as of the end of 2024, the US cattle herd size reached the lowest level on record and is more than thirty-percent smaller than the peak size it reached in 1974, and only four-fifths of the average size from 1973 to 2024 despite rising cattle prices over the same period. Cattle herd size is cyclical, with a typical cycle length of about ten years.
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White papersFields of Dreams: The Growing Disparity Between Yield Forecasts and Reality
After under-promising and over-delivering for much of the first half of the last decade, realized end-of-season yields have come in below early season United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates consistently since 2019 for corn and 2022 for soybeans. When it comes to yield projection, past performance is assumed to inform future results. In fact, the most common approach to generating a basic estimate of US corn and soybean yields involves deriving an “unconditional” linear trend estimate from historical yield data starting in the 1980s.
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White papersFinancing the future of food
Current food production models are encountering significant challenges, with modern agricultural practices endangering biodiversity and heightening dependency on finite resources. Amid rapid demographic shifts, we examine how strategic investments and the distinctive capabilities of emerging markets are poised to tackle global food challenges – and drive transformative change across the sector.
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White papersThe cold storage sector comes with challenges but offers valuable opportunities
The future of cold storage is bright, as increasing global demand for fresh and frozen food products place this asset class in an irreplaceable position on the global supply chain. In an interview with IREI, Jonathan Epstein, managing partner at BGO, discussed the outlook for cold storage, barriers to entering its market, and suggestions on investing in this emerging sector.
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White papersRegenerative agriculture: definition, implementation, and impact
Feeding a growing population in a world of increasingly scarce natural resources will require sustainable solutions, which is where regenerative agriculture could play a critical role. For investors, building and sustainably managing a globally diversified portfolio of agricultural assets can generate competitive risk-adjusted returns while providing socioeconomic and environmental ...
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White papersInvesting in biodiversity - Markets to finance the protection, better management and restoration of nature
Unprecedented global action to address the decline in nature and its causes is underway, and investments in biodiversity will be a critical part of these efforts.
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White papersThe opportunities and challenges of international trade in agriculture
An imbalance between limited natural resources and the growing appetite for farm products makes agricultural trade critical to meeting global food demand, bringing with it further opportunities for agricultural producers, agribusinesses, and investors.
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White papersWhy invest in agriculture now?
The solid fundamentals supporting farmland as an asset class remain. Now, new advances are sustainably increasing farmland yields while creating additional income streams.
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White papersFarmland’s inflation-hedging characteristics
A comprehensive analysis of different crop types’ performance in an inflationary environment.
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Podcast2023 Sustainable Investing Midyear Outlook: Agri-Food for Thought
Tom Lyons, head of Climate for Allspring, and Chris McKnett, head of Sustainable Strategy, Stewardship, and Implementation for Allspring’s Sustainability team, discuss the impacts of a changing climate and how they’re becoming increasingly evident worldwide on different industries, especially how the world produces and consumes food. A more complete discussion can be found in Allspring’s midyear report.
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White papersAgri-food for thought: How might sustainability change markets in the coming decades?
Tom Lyons, Allspring’s head of Climate, explains the worsening challenges from current food-production processes, their solutions, and portfolio adjustments to consider to potentially capture future growth opportunities.
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White papersU.S. farmland investment returns: continued gains in 2022
Our optimistic outlook for U.S. agricultural investments continues following overall outstanding performance.
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White papersBuilding resilience: IREI interview on infrastructure’s potential to benefit global food security
The consequences of COVID-19 triggered global concern around food security. Even developed countries such as the UK worried about food shortages during the global lockdown because borders were basically closed. In some regions, such as the Middle East, there were concerns about the potential political unrest due to shortages and rising food prices.
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White papersThe Inflation Reduction Act: implications for U.S. timberland and agriculture
Aiming to reduce carbon emissions by approximately 40% by 2030, this legislation represents the single largest investment in climate and clean energy solutions in American history. We examine its potential impact on foresters and farmers—and on investments in U.S. timberland and agriculture.
