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Grounding the financialization of farmland: perspectives on financial actors as new land owners in rural Australia

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  • Sarah Ruth Sippel

    (University of Leipzig)

  • Nicolette Larder

    (University of New England)

  • Geoffrey Lawrence

    (The University of Queensland)

Abstract

Sparked by the conjunction of food, fuel, and financial crises, there has been an increasing awareness in recent years of the scarce and finite character of natural resources. Productive resources such as agricultural land have been touted by financial actors—such as merchant banks, pension funds, and investment companies—as providing the basis for a range of new “alternative” financial asset classes and products. While the drivers, motives, and rationales behind the increasing interest of turning farmland into a financial asset class have been traced by a number of scholars, the interpretations of, and interactions with, financial actors at the community level have received less attention. Based on qualitative research in rural Australia, this paper reveals the grounds on which finance-backed investments have been accepted and accommodated by communities in rural Australia and delineates the reasons that have led to feelings of unease or refusal. The paper thereby demonstrates that the financialization of farmland is neither abstract nor one-sided but rather a multidimensional process that not only includes financial actors but also the impacted rural populations in various ways. Positioning the activities of financial actors in Australia within the emerging research on the financialization of farmland, the paper endorses context-sensitive analyses to better interpret these recent transformations of the agri-food system.

Suggested Citation

  • Sarah Ruth Sippel & Nicolette Larder & Geoffrey Lawrence, 2017. "Grounding the financialization of farmland: perspectives on financial actors as new land owners in rural Australia," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 34(2), pages 251-265, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:34:y:2017:i:2:d:10.1007_s10460-016-9707-2
    DOI: 10.1007/s10460-016-9707-2
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    Cited by:

    1. Bill Pritchard & Elen Welch & Guillermo Umana Restrepo & Lachlan Mitchell, 2023. "How do financialised agri-corporate investors acquire farmland? Analysing land investment in an Australian agricultural region, 2004–2019," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 23(5), pages 1037-1058.
    2. Jinqian Deng & Yue Gu & Na Zhang, 2024. "Has China’s Pilot Policy of Farmland Management Right Mortgage Loan Promoted County Agricultural Economic Growth?," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-20, June.
    3. Justyna Agnieszka Franc-Dabrowskaa, 2019. "Crawling financialization in Central and Eastern Europe using the example of Agriculture," Economia agro-alimentare, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 21(3), pages 677-696.
    4. Alexandra Langford & Geoffrey Lawrence & Kiah Smith, 2021. "Financialization for Development? Asset Making on Indigenous Land in Remote Northern Australia," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 52(3), pages 574-597, May.
    5. Jennifer Clapp & S. Ryan Isakson, 2018. "Risky Returns: The Implications of Financialization in the Food System," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 49(2), pages 437-460, March.
    6. Nicola Livingstone & Nick Gallent & Iqbal Hamiduddin & Meri Juntti & Phoebe Stirling, 2021. "Beyond Agriculture: Alternative Geographies of Rural Land Investment and Place Effects across the United Kingdom," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-22, October.
    7. Borras, Saturnino M. & Franco, Jennifer C. & Moreda, Tsegaye & Xu, Yunan & Bruna, Natacha & Afewerk Demena, Binyam, 2022. "The value of so-called ‘failed’ large-scale land acquisitions," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    8. Sarah Ruth Sippel, 2018. "Financialising farming as a moral imperative? Renegotiating the legitimacy of land investments in Australia," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 50(3), pages 549-568, May.

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