There is no shortage of options when it comes to investing your money, and you likely know many of them — stocks, bonds, mutual funds and more. However, have you considered investing in agriculture? Not only could it benefit your bottom line, it also supports farmers and the hundreds of millions of people they feed. Here’s a closer look at why you should consider investing in agriculture.
Agriculture includes everything from cultivating soil to growing crops, including wheat, corn beans, peanuts, apples, grapes and anything in between. If you can buy it at your grocery store’s produce section, someone grew it. However, famers also care for and rear animals to provide food and other products, such as wool from sheep and leather from cattle. Even the definition of a farm can vary widely: Consider a salmon farm, an orange orchard, a tobacco field and a cranberry bog. All are markedly different, yet all are farms and considered part of agriculture.
Your investment could assist farmers in numerous ways. When you support farms, you support family businesses that may be have been passed down from generation to generation but need additional investment to stay afloat. Your investment may allow a farm to expand and diversify, or help encourage sustainable farming practices, which are designed to protect the earth’s resources while still providing for the current population. With sustainable farming, you are not only empowering the families involved in farming, but future generations of growers as well. Investing in agriculture can also make it easier for new farmers — especially people of color — to get started.
In fact, investing in agriculture may be less risky than buying other stocks because you are putting money into a physical piece of land, the value of which should increase over time. Because the demand for food is ever-increasing and food costs tend to rise over time, your contributions could also serve as safeguards against inflation. Plus, agricultural investments can diversify your portfolio while helping you feel good about where your money is going.
As the world’s population continues to rise, so too does the demand for food — and farms throughout the world will have to meet this demand. Based on current projections, if two billion people are added to the planet in the next three decades, agricultural production will have to increase by up to 70% to meet the greater demand for food. That is an incredible amount of output. Investing in agriculture now could boost your bank account, benefit farmers, and make a positive impact on the world. For more information about agriculture investing and promising areas of investment, check out the accompanying infographic.
