TIAA-CREF

The Vermont Pension Investment Committee has invested $100 million in the Nuveen Global Farmland Fund, which aims to make farmland acquisitions averaging $20m across the US, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Poland, Romania and Chile.

Worldwide farmland under management reversed upward trends in recent years, with assets falling 15.7% to $16.2 billion, according to Pensions & Investments' annual survey.

As foreign ownership of agriculture land continues to increase, efforts to limit foreign ownership of US farmland have gained traction.

The shameful story of how 1 million black families have been ripped from their farms. A war waged by deed of title has dispossessed 98 percent of black agricultural landowners in America.

By buying up US farmland and leasing it to large-scale farm machinery operators, TIAA is closing the door on policies that could revive the more diversified farming that used to underlie healthy local economies.

According to asset managers, a window is emerging for institutional money to flow into agriculture due to change of ownership, notably in markets such as Australia and the US.

As foreign ownership of agriculture land continues to increase, efforts to limit foreign ownership of U.S. farmland have gained traction.

Grassroots International is supporting partners and allies in a global campaign to stop violent and illegal land grabs at their source: the massive financial investments of pension funds and college endowments.

Harvard University, the US pension fund manager TIAA/Nuveen and Japan's Mitsui are among the foreign companies buying up Brazilian farmlands that are responsible for over 420,000 ha of deforestation in the Cerrado since 2000.

Depuis une dizaine d’années, l’argent des fonds de pension alimente un énorme investissement dans les terres agricoles. Le nombre de fonds de pension investissant dans les terres agricoles et les sommes d’argent déployées à cette fin sont en augmentation, mais tout se fait discrètement.

Money from pension funds has fuelled the financial sector's massive move into farmland investing over the past decade. The number of pension funds involved in farmland investment and the amount of money they are deploying into it is increasing, under the radar.

How can it be that finance centers in New York or Stockholm exercise control over lands in Northeastern Brazil?