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China is buying up American farms. Washington wants to crack down

13 points by NoRagrets 4y ago

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
superb-owl 4y ago
Does anyone know why American farmland is suddenly being consolidated [1]? Is it cheaper than it has been? Is there reason to believe it will become particularly valuable in the coming decades (e.g. due to climate change)? [1] https://www.vox.com/recode/22528659/bill-gates-largest-farmland-owner-cascade-investments https://www.vox.com/recode/22528659/bill-gates-largest-farml...
- jelliclesfarm 4y ago
  It’s a land grab. Ag input companies have consolidated to 4 main companies. (Chem China is one of them) With Agtech and the commoditization of data, the company that owns the full stack has a higher profit margin. Monsanto used to do this. They controlled seed, inputs and sales. They could siphon federal farm subsidies. This made farmers land rich but cash poor. Slowly they start getting deeper into debt. Until the younger generations find no money in farming and land assets now have corporate buyers. Soon, almost all the farmland in America will be owned by corporations. In places like India, foreigners are not allowed to buy farmland. The govt has a dim view of Monsanto like company even though their dollar power is strong. Farmer suicides is real in places like India due to the crushing debt. American farmers can escape it due to diff socio-economic-political scenarios. Mostly because it’s American multinational corporate buy outs/land grab of American land from American farmers. The percentage of foreign ownership is still low but creeping higher.
- jelliclesfarm 4y ago
  https://www.agriculture.com/news/business/2021-land-report-who-owns-the-most-land-in-the-united-states https://www.agriculture.com/news/business/2021-land-report-w... One way to tap into govt farm subsidies is land ownership. Sometimes you will get paid to NOT farm just by virtue of owning large tracts of land. Obviously I am simplifying it. But that’s about the gist of it. It’s a great tax benefit for corporations and a way to siphon farm subsidies from govt.

13 points by NoRagrets 4y ago

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

Does anyone know why American farmland is suddenly being consolidated [1]? Is it cheaper than it has been? Is there reason to believe it will become particularly valuable in the coming decades (e.g. due to climate change)? [1] https://www.vox.com/recode/22528659/bill-gates-largest-farmland-owner-cascade-investments https://www.vox.com/recode/22528659/bill-gates-largest-farml...

jelliclesfarm 4y ago
It’s a land grab. Ag input companies have consolidated to 4 main companies. (Chem China is one of them) With Agtech and the commoditization of data, the company that owns the full stack has a higher profit margin. Monsanto used to do this. They controlled seed, inputs and sales. They could siphon federal farm subsidies. This made farmers land rich but cash poor. Slowly they start getting deeper into debt. Until the younger generations find no money in farming and land assets now have corporate buyers. Soon, almost all the farmland in America will be owned by corporations. In places like India, foreigners are not allowed to buy farmland. The govt has a dim view of Monsanto like company even though their dollar power is strong. Farmer suicides is real in places like India due to the crushing debt. American farmers can escape it due to diff socio-economic-political scenarios. Mostly because it’s American multinational corporate buy outs/land grab of American land from American farmers. The percentage of foreign ownership is still low but creeping higher.
jelliclesfarm 4y ago
https://www.agriculture.com/news/business/2021-land-report-who-owns-the-most-land-in-the-united-states https://www.agriculture.com/news/business/2021-land-report-w... One way to tap into govt farm subsidies is land ownership. Sometimes you will get paid to NOT farm just by virtue of owning large tracts of land. Obviously I am simplifying it. But that’s about the gist of it. It’s a great tax benefit for corporations and a way to siphon farm subsidies from govt.