Take-Aways from April 16 Agriculture Deep Dive Webcast

by Joe Azzaro, Managing Director of 360 One Firm

Agriculture as a Safe Haven - Highlights

In the Agriculture Deep Dive, we first heard from Brandon Zick, CIO of Ceres Farms, who explained the benefits of owning farmland in a diversified portfolio which included (i) income generation, (ii) low volatility, (iii) inflation protection and (iv) diversification. Brandon highlighted how row crop farmland acted as an effective diversifier during the last two major equity market drawdowns (2001 and 2008).   

Sean Lawless, CIO of Multi-Family Office ARS said that he is viewing farmland exposure as an attractive alternative to bonds given the low interest rate environment and the current income generated by farmland rent yields. Additionally, Sean thought the supply / demand dynamics inherent in farmland made the asset class attractive from an investment perspective since farmland acreage has decreased by 31 million acres over the last two decades.

Eric Lindberg, CIO of the Knowlton Foundation referenced the universal forecast for lower overall forward equity growth rates for the private equity market as a whole, making food & agriculture private equity much more attractive as part of a portfolio, especially in light of headwinds like COVID-19, which is forcing the world to rethink how we grow and process food. 

On the Ag PE side, Joe McGuire, CEO of Pure Green Farms, which is in the market raising equity for their automated indoor growing facility based in South Bend, Indiana explained the benefits of growing food indoors relative to vertical farming and low tech farming which included (i) food safety and sustainability, (ii) market demand and (iii) economics. 

Here’s a link to the presentation from the Ag Farmland Webcast, Indoor Growing Discussion, Ceres’ Farmland deck and links to materials on Ceres PE Strategy along with an Indoor Growing White Paper they published earlier this year.   

Feel free to reach out with any questions. Talk soon.