New avenues of farm corporatization in the prairie grains sector: farm family entrepreneurs and the case of One Earth Farms

Abstract

This paper addresses longstanding debates around changing patterns of farm ownership and structure on the North American plains. Over the last 150 years, the agrifood system has been transformed by a process of capitalist penetration through which non-farm capital has appropriated key links in the 'food chain'. Today, large, often transnational corporations dominate in the provision of farm inputs, as well as in food processing, distribution, and retailing. The paradox for food system scholars has been that primary food production (i.e., farming) has generally remained in the hands of independent, familybased operations, especially in the grains sector. This paradox has generated a substantial literature on the barriers to capitalist penetration in agriculture.

The financialization of agri-food in Canada and Australia: Corporate farmland and farm ownership in the grains and oilseed sector

“…One Earth Farms (OEF) was launched in 2009 with a $CA 27.5 million investment by Sprott Resource Corp, a natural resource investment firm. The concept behind OEF was to develop a very-large scale, centrally managed farming entreprise on land leased from First Nations communities (Magnan, 2012). Although OEF pursued a very ambitious expansion over its first four years, eventually reaching 77 000 ha of crop and pastureland and nearly 18 000 head of cattle, it posted significant financial losses over the first four years of operations.…”

“…Broadacre, a division of Pike Management Group, is a vertically integrated mega-farm involved in crop production and processing. In 2012, it absorbed a very-large familyowned farming entreprise, Wigmore farms (Pratt, 2012; see also Magnan, 2012). In November 2014, Broadacre entered creditor protection, with publicly released documents listing unpaid debts of $CA 46 million (Duckworth, 2014).…”

Food security or commercial business? Gulf State investments in Australian agriculture

“…Findings from Canada and Eurasia, as well as from various European countries, demonstrate that the Global North is not only a source but also a site of investment of agricultural capital (cf. e.g., Visser and Spoor 2011;Visser, Mamonova, and Spoor 2012;Magnan 2012;Sommerville 2013;Franco and Borras 2013;Sommerville and Magnan forthcoming). With a focus on financial investments, as Sommerville and Magnan (forthcoming) argue, the entry of new sources of capital into regional agricultural economies occurs by means of financial vehicles that blend financial and productive logics.…”

Feeding finance: a critical account of the shifting relationships between finance, food and farming

“…With the trading of financial instruments 'almost as important to their bottom line as the trading of physical commodities' (Talbot, 2004, p. 107), agri-food companies now behave more like financial institutions (Burch & Lawrence, 2009; see also Krippner, 2005). Another notable development is the growth of farmland investment funds which purchase farmland and then lease it out to farmer-operators with investors receiving a portion of the operating revenue while also benefiting from subsequent increases in property value (Burch & Lawrence, 2009;Magnan, 2012;Magnan & Sommerville, 2012;McMichael, 2012). Propelled by the perceived scarcity of farmland and bolstered by rising commodities prices, these funds have performed very well, delivering handsome returns to investors.…”