Farmland Homes

Contrary to popular belief, you need not have been born and raised on a farm to make a profit buying farmland. According to recent reports, food prices have been increasing at a record pace over the past three years; and due to obvious factors like growing populations, expanding appetites and beltlines, there is no reason to believe that food prices won’t continue to rise.

While this is obviously bad news for the average American shopper, it’s great news for the hundreds and thousands of US farmers and other workers who are directly involved in agriculture. But it isn’t all blue skies on the horizon. In recent months, food, fuel and fertilizer have all seen substantial price increases. However, this trend is not expected to continue and prices should stabilize shortly.

Why buying a farm is a good idea?

While prices in the short term are bound to vacillate, there is little doubt that purchasing farmland is a solid long term investment. All you have to do is look at the huge increases in the US population that is being spurred primarily by immigration and the fact that the eating habits of immigrants tends to change over time. While first generation immigrants tend to be quite poor and eat whatever they can get their hands’ on, whatever is cheapest, succeeding generations are often far more selective. This has been a pattern throughout history. Most succeeding generations have more money and are better off than their parents’ were; and when people have more money, they buy higher quality food.

Increased access to medicine and scientific breakthroughs also mean that people are living longer than at any time in the country’s history. And you can’t live without consuming high-quality food. America has also become an increasingly health-conscious nation and is returning to basic food groups and home cooked meals. When considering the future of farming, we should also look beyond our own boarders. Countries like China and India have huge populations and an improving standard of living. While the people in these emerging economic superpowers are currently content to eat diets that are mostly grain-based, their children and their children’s children will seek to diversify their diets and eat more like people do in first world nations. In short, they will eat a lot more beef, chicken and foods that are high in protein.

Another reason to be optimistic about the future of the farming industry is the introduction of bio fuels like ethanol. Although they may take a few more years to perfect, the trend is clearly headed away from fossil fuels and toward renewable and sustainable sources of energy. And it just so happens that most bio fuels are made from farming crops like corn, sugar and palm oil.

When you take all of these things together, the future certainly does look bright for farmers in America.

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