Farm Policy News Summary
Farmland Markets and Macro Markets
December 15, 2020 @ 11:00 am - 12:00 pm CST
Farmland is receiving significantly increased attention by owners and investors seeking to make sense out of the scrambled economic signals of the recent past. Historically, the conventional narrative around farmland as a financial asset is that the returns are positively correlated with inflation, have low or negative correlation with equities, and have positive portfolio benefits in well-diversified holdings due to the relative lack of response to short-term broad market movements. The Fed has signaled an intent to target higher inflation, and the changing posture on trade and world demand could drive commodity prices, though perhaps not as clearly linked to dollar prices. This session examines the relative returns to farmland over differing macro-environment periods of the past, and suggests the strength of relationship to expect in the future to financial assets, interest rate indexes, and inflation.