If you want to become rich, Jim Rogers, investment whiz, best-selling author and one of Wall Street's towering personalities, has this advice: Become a farmer. Food prices have been high recently. Some have questioned how long that can continue. Not Rogers. He predicts that farming incomes will rise dramatically in the next few decades, faster than those in most other industries â even Wall Street. The essence of his argument is this: We don't need more bankers. What we need are more farmers. The invisible hand will do its magic. "The world has got a serious food problem," says Rogers. "The only real way to solve it is to draw more people back to agriculture." http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2080767,00.html
Would take a pretty large exogenous shock like a sudden increase to 11 billion people or so or 70% of all farmland becoming infertile suddenly. Don't know if that's really all that likely. But if you want to become a farmer...it's probably a good life. Not too many worries and just doing your thing.
The "shock" is happening right now. From the article: "The main reason for U.S. farmers' unlikely recovery is as familiar as the outcome is foreign. Wealthier consumers in places like China and India are eating more, and in particular they are eating more meat. The average American consumes about 250 lb. (113 kg) of meat a year. The average Indian eats less than 10 lb. (4.5 kg) a year. In China, it's more like 100 lb. (45 kg). Which means there's a lot of room for growth. Half of U.S. corn production goes to feed cattle, pigs and poultry, which drives up demand for grain. Ethanol has increased the demand for corn as well." Also important part of farmers' wealth is property. "according to the Federal Reserve, the average farm has doubled in value in the past six years." In the UK the farmland allocated to crops tripled in value over the same period. As an ecologist who writes research about ever incresing rubbish production at a respectable university (and whose name I've unfortunately forgotten) wrote: "If my father wanted me to be rich, he wouldn't have sent me to colledge. Instead he should have bought me a landfill." Mybe for hired workers. For farmers it's being constantly dependent on weather conditions, insect infestations and other factors beyond control.
Feds/Soros Buying Up Flooded Farmland federal government is sending out letters to all of the flooded out farmers in the Missouri River flood plain and bottoms notifying them that the Army Corps of Engineers will offer to BUY THEIR LAND. George Soros appears to be âinvestingâ in farmground through the same puppet company that he used to get into the grain elevator and fertilizer business. The company is called Ospraie Capital Management and is buying up farmground in a joint venture with Teays River Investments as a partner. http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2011/06/27/feds-buying-up-farmland-they-flooded-soros-in-on-it/
Funny thing about owning land in Argentina Brazil etc Masses rile up and find out who you are and they take your land with government support. I kinda like that's what could be waiting for Soros
Soros is not new to this kind of risks. 10 years back he got near wiped out in Russia. There was no need for "masses to rise up". Just desire of the "oligarchs" to consolidate control of the property and a little help from courts in Moscow.
Rogers is half-right, as usual Many american farmers are doing very well for themselves... if not outright getting rich. Their success includes grain - crop farming, timber sales, gravel & stone, mineral rights to mining, windmill and cell tower leases, etc. Go to any state fair tractor pull, country music festival or farm equipment auction and you will be amongst more guys worth $1+ mil to $10+ mil than collectively visit any message board for traders. You would also be very hard pressed to pick them out of a Wal-Mart crowd filled with Joe & Jane middle class. I can think of one family in particular worth $10+ million all day who if you saw their house and clothing, you'd swear they are on welfare or worse. Those are the people who are grabbing up farm land and timber property at record prices and rising. They can afford it. So that's the part Rogers is right about. The other part is, nobody watching CNBC is even almost able to get started farming right now as if it's a viable career move open to them. Unless someone has extensive farming knowledge, substantial money and youth on their side, it's a closed industry.
Well put Austin. To add to that, in my area, farmland averages $10K an acre. There are sales and auctions every month due to death or migration and there is never a lack of bidders for these lands. The average farmer with 300 acres is worth $3M just in land and that doesn't count their equipment. Unlike the Wall Street or city idiots that if they had those assets would drive around in an Audi or Lexus and would be leveraged to the hilt, these farmers are happy with their pick up with 150K miles on it & their minivan. The large farmers in the area work as much as 5K acres. That is land wealth of $50M alone and most of the larger farmers keep some livestock as well. The big move lately is toward chickens (more profit per labor hour) but many have thousands of hogs on top of their land. I get a real blast from the idiots that talk down to the farmers calling them stupid, morons or idiots. Most of the farmers I know have at least a BS degree in business, agriculture science, economics or chemistry. Most of them though hold Masters degrees in multiple fields. Their parents saw the writing on the wall years ago and made sure their kids got a great education so their could efficiently manage their land. I was born in the Midwest, moved to the city and then moved back to the country nearly 20 years ago because of the quality of life and safety. I've been buying land since I came back here don't regret a moment of the effort spent. When the economy goes to shit, and it will, I know I will be reasonably protected from the downturn.