Tiaa-cref knew why it wanted to but the farm. The $487 billion, New York-based retirement fund and financial services firm had taken a serious look at global farmland investment in the middle of the 2000s. It saw stable returns above inflation, uncorrelated with the rest of its portfolio - and the opportunity to own a hard asset whose value is driven by surging worldwide demand for food. But first, it had some spadework to do. Now one of a handful of firms catering to the growing institutional interest in responsible farmland investing,TIAA-CREF started out by purchasing some U.S. farms in 2007.
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