Are Farmlands in Minnesota Holding Their Value?

There’s an old saying that says something to the effect of if you’ve got food on your table, thank a farmer.  

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The late radio legend Paul Harvey wrote this iconic piece about farmers. 

To say that farming is a difficult job is an understatement. And over the last 20 years or so, as a country, we’ve lost so many family farms that couldn’t stay profitable for any number of reasons.  

So, to say I was a little surprised to see this information this morning from a daily email newsletter I get from “Morning Brew” that said farmland had jumped in value 231% between 2008 and the half-way point of 2023. 

To be clearer it said that farmland bought by investment firms, which speaks to the point I made earlier about farms being sold. These statistics come from the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries.  

The group says that at the end of last year investors owned 16.6 billion dollars' worth of farmland. The group goes on to say that farmland is fairly resistant to inflation rates, making farmland a good investment.  

According to the United Nations estimates, the world will need to produce 60% more food by 2050.  

Farmland has increased in value over the last fourteen years from $2,700 per acre in 2010 to about $5,640 in 2023 according to the United States Department of Agriculture.

 One challenge that the industry is facing is that most of the farmers that are still actively working are getting older and there’s not a great deal of younger people following in their footsteps.  

Even dating back to the pandemic, more and more people were getting back to growing their own food or at least some it anyway. And as the cost of things continues to go up, more people are likely to continue to try their hand at gardening.  

But there’s a big difference between having a garden and running a farm, hopefully a solution can be found to support local farmers, and a connection can be established with younger generations.