The following is excerpted from the Church News. To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
Farmland Partners Inc. is selling 46 farms in eight states to Farmland Reserve, Inc., an integrated investment auxiliary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Farmland Reserve has agreed to pay $289 million for a total of 41,554 acres of farmland, according to a news release issued last week by Farmland Partners. The cash deal is scheduled to close on Wednesday.
The farms changing hands are located in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Nebraska. They grow corn, soybeans, cotton, rice, peas and peanuts.
The new owner plans to lease the farms to local farmers, Farmland Reserve CEO Doug Rose said in the news release.
“We are grateful for the opportunity to work with Farmland Partners to acquire this unique portfolio of high-quality farmland,” he said. “We’re also gratified they saw us as the right buyer for these properties and the farmer-tenant relationships that come with them. As an investor with a long-term vision, we look forward to leasing these productive farms to local farmers for many years to come.”
Farmland Reserve leases land to local farmers and to solar and wind renewable energy developers, according to its website. Farmland Reserve also leases land to its operating subsidiary, AgReserves.
Why does the Church of Jesus Christ invest in farmland?
The church, through investment auxiliaries and other outlets, is an agricultural titan in the United States, according to Landgate, an online marketplace for commercial land resources and news. Landgate estimated that the church and its auxiliaries own an estimated 1.7 million acres of U.S. farmland worth $16 billion.
As a privately held investment auxiliary of the church, Farmland Reserve doesn’t comment on acreage estimates from third-party sources.
The news release about the sale said, “Farmland Reserve’s earnings support the mission of the church and its religious, humanitarian, educational and charitable good works.”
To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
Allen AJanuary 28, 2025
Church farms supply a lot of the commodities that are found in the Bishop's Storehouse, so the money invested in agricultural land is in fact being used to assist the poor
Corey D.October 17, 2024
The church has been in the news a lot the last few years due to some high profile lawsuits or allegations, complaints, etc., regarding it's investments, particularly in the commercial area, my son was a city engineer for one of Utah's fastest growing cities, he worked with church employees regarding property and construction on a regular basis, one day he and one of the church employees for the church's real estate arm were talking about it and the church employee made the comment "we believe that the Lord expects us to take care of the financial resources of his church in a wise manner and investing in or purchasing real estate is part of being wise with those resources", I personally have no problem with that and most people I am acquainted with don't either. A lot of folks say it should be given to help the poor but to me it puts the church in a position to help even more than they already do and I kind of compare it to the parable of the talents, you can sit on the money and protect it, which means you don't lose any but you can also put it to work and increase it thus giving you even more options.