Exploring the growing links between digital agriculture, finance capital, and farmland investors and managers in North America
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Published
Oct 30, 2023
Emily Duncan
André Magnan
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0942-307X
Abstract
Scholars have recognized digital agricultural technologies and financialization as important vectors of agri-food transformation, yet little research has examined how these trends mutually influence one another. In this paper, we present case studies of four firms that blend together digital agriculture, farmland investment, and finance capital in novel ways. Veripath is an established farmland investment company, with significant holdings in Western and Central Canada. It relies on digital technologies to remotely monitor the performance of its properties and the farming practices of its tenants. Farmers Edge is a digital agriculture platform and service provider founded in Canada in 2005, with operations spanning North America, Brazil, and Australia. The firm has received significant backing from finance capital and is partnering with U.S. farmland management services provider Farmers National Company to facilitate data flow among farmers, landowners, and investors. Finally, we present the cases of AcreTrader and FarmTogether, two recently launched farmland investment platforms promising to ‘democratize’ farmland investment by offering investors a seamless online experience for buying rural properties. We analyse how these firms represent an evolving nexus between finance capital and digital agriculture, with implications for agri-food restructuring.
How to Cite
Duncan, E. and Magnan, A. (2023) “Exploring the growing links between digital agriculture, finance capital, and farmland investors and managers in North America”, The International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food. Paris, France, 29(2), pp. 1–14. doi: 10.48416/ijsaf.v29i2.557.
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Keywords
digital agriculture, farmland assetization, financialization, algorithmic governance, case study
References
AcreTrader. (2023). Frequently Asked Questions. https://acretrader.com/faq
Birch, K., & Ward, C. (2022). Assetization and the ‘new asset geographies’. Dialogues in human geography. https://doi.org/10.1177/20438206221130807.
Bjørkhaug, H., Magnan, A., & Lawrence, G. (Eds.). (2018). The financialization of agri-food systems: contested transformations. Routledge.
BNN Bloomberg. (2021, March 2). Buying into farmland as a hedge against inflation: Veripath Partners director. BNN Bloomberg. https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/investing/video/buying-into-farmland-as-a-hedge-against-inflation-veripath-partners-director~2151659
Bronson, K., & Knezevic, I. (2016). Big Data in food and agriculture. Big Data & Society, 3(1), 205395171664817. https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951716648174
Bronson, K. (2022). The Immaculate Conception of Data: Agribusiness, Activists, and their Shared Politics of the Future. McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Burch, D., & Lawrence, G. (2009). Towards a third food regime: behind the transformation. Agriculture and Human Values, 26(4), 267–279. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-009-9219-4
Castree, N. (2005). The epistemology of particulars: Human geography, case studies and ‘context’. Geoforum, 36(5), 541–544. https://doi.org/10/cn49nz
Chmiliar, L. (2010). Multiple-Case Designs. In Encyclopedia of Case Study Research. SAGE Publications, Inc. Thousand Oaks, California, United States. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412957397
Clapp, J. (2018). Mega-mergers on the menu: corporate concentration and the politics of sustainability in the global food system. Global Environmental Politics, 18(2), 12-33. https://doi.org/10.1162/glep_a_00454
Clapp, J., & Isakson, S. R. (2018). Speculative harvests: financialization, food, and agriculture. Practical Action Publishing.
Clapp, J., & Ruder, S. L. (2020). Precision technologies for agriculture: Digital farming, gene-edited crops, and the politics of sustainability. Global Environmental Politics, 20(3), 49-69. https://doi.org/10.1162/glep_a_00566
Cross, B. (2023, February 2). Don’t farm, just own. The Western Producer. https://www.producer.com/news/dont-farm-just-own/
Danaher, J., Hogan, M. J., Noone, C., Kennedy, R., Behan, A., De Paor, A., Felzmann, H., Haklay, M., Khoo, S.-M., Morison, J., Murphy, M. H., O’Brolchain, N., Schafer, B., & Shankar, K. (2017). Algorithmic governance: Developing a research agenda through the power of collective intelligence. Big Data & Society, 4(2), 205395171772655. https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951717726554
Desmarais, A. A., Qualman, D., Magnan, A., & Wiebe, N. (2017). Investor ownership or social investment? Changing farmland ownership in Saskatchewan, Canada. Agriculture and Human Values, 34, 149-166.
Duncan, E., Abdulai, A. R., & Fraser, E. D. (2021a). Modernizing agriculture through digital technologies: Prospects and challenges. Handbook on the human impact of agriculture, 138-161.
Duncan, E., Glaros, A., Ross, D. Z., & Nost, E. (2021b). New but for whom? Discourses of innovation in precision agriculture. Agriculture and Human Values, 38, 1181-1199. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-021-10244-8
Duncan, E., Rotz, S., Magnan, A., & Bronson, K. (2022). Disciplining land through data: The role of agricultural technologies in farmland assetisation. Sociologia Ruralis, 62(2), 231-249. https://doi.org/10.1111/soru.12369
Duncan, E. (2023). The Affordances of Digital Agricultural Technologies (Doctoral dissertation, University of Guelph). https://hdl.handle.net/10214/27831
Fairbairn, M. (2020). Fields of Gold: Financing the Global Land Rush. Cornell University Press.
Fairfax. (2021). 2021 Annual Report. https://s1.q4cdn.com/579586326/files/doc_financials/2021/FF/WEBSITE-Fairfax-Financial%27s-2021-Annual-Report.pdf
Fairfax. (2022). 2022 Annual Report. https://s1.q4cdn.com/579586326/files/doc_downloads/2023/03/WEBSITE-Fairfax-Financial-2022-Annual-Report_v2.pdf
Farmers Edge. (2020a). Digital Ag Gives Farm Managers a Competitive Edge. https://farmersedge.ca/digital-ag-gives-farm-managers-a-competitive-edge/
Farmers Edge. (2020b). Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations. https://farmersedge.ca/investor-relations/reports-and-filings/
FarmTogether. 2023. Frequently Asked Questions. Retrieved May 15, 2023, from https://farmtogether.com/faq?q=d6751ab3-7155-4d0b-aedf-7c4c446a6409
Fields, D. (2019). Automated landlord: Digital technologies and post-crisis financial accumulation. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 54(1), 160–181. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X19846514
FNC. (2022). Farmers National Company partners with Climate FieldView to digitize farm management. https://www.farmersnational.com/news/company-news/farmers-national-company-partners-with-climate-fieldview-to-digitize-farm-management
Fontes, Z. (2022, November 10). Farmers Edge Reports Third Quarter 2022 Results. Farmers Edge. https://farmersedge.ca/farmers-edge-reports-third-quarter-2022-results/
Fontes, Z. (2023, March 15). Farmers Edge Reports Fourth Quarter 2022 Results. Farmers Edge. https://farmersedge.ca/farmers-edge-reports-fourth-quarter-2022-results/
Gardezi, M., & Stock, R. (2021). Growing algorithmic governmentality: Interrogating the social construction of trust in precision agriculture. Journal of Rural Studies, 84, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2021.03.004
Green, A. G., Abdulai, A. R., Duncan, E., Glaros, A., Campbell, M., Newell, R., ... & Fraser, E. D. (2021). A scoping review of the digital agricultural revolution and ecosystem services: implications for Canadian policy and research agendas. Facets, 6(1), 1955-1985. https://doi.org/10.1139/facets-2021-0017
Kiernan-Stone, L. (2022, August 31). Veripath Farmland Partners’ R-Fund Acquires 4,588 Acres in Saskatchewan. Global AgInvesting. https://www.globalaginvesting.com/veripath-farmland-partners-r-fund-acquires-4588ac-saskatchewan/
Klerkx, L., Jakku, E., & Labarthe, P. (2019). A review of social science on digital agriculture, smart farming and agriculture 4.0: New contributions and a future research agenda. NJAS-Wageningen journal of life sciences, 90, 100315. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.njas.2019.100315
Li, T. M. (2014). What is land? Assembling a resource for global investment. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 39(4), 589-602. https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12065
Magnan, A., Wendimu, M., Desmarais, A., & Aske, K. (2022). “It is the Wild West out here”: Prairie farmers’ perspectives on farmland investment and land concentration. Canadian Food Studies/La Revue canadienne des études sur l’alimentation, 9(3), 36-60.
Magnan, A., & Sunley, S. (2017). Farmland investment and financialization in Saskatchewan, 2003–2014: An empirical analysis of farmland transactions. Journal of Rural Studies, 49, 92-103.
Malloy, C. (2023, January 3). What Makes AcreTrader Unique To Investors. https://acretrader.com/learn/acretrader-101/what-makes-acretrader-different
Miles, C. (2019). The combine will tell the truth: On precision agriculture and algorithmic rationality. Big Data & Society, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951719849444
Munch, D. (2023, August 7). U.S. Agricultural Land Values and Croplands Cash Rents Reach New Highs. https://www.fb.org/market-intel/u-s-agricultural-land-values-and-cropland-cash-rents-reach-new-highs#:~:text=Average%20U.S.%20cropland%20rent%20increased,5.2%25%20to%20%24142%20per%20acre.
Ouma, S. (2020). Farming as Financial Asset: Global Finance and the Making of Institutional Landscapes. Agenda Publishing Limited.
Rotz, S., Gravely, E., Mosby, I., Duncan, E., Finnis, E., Horgan, M., ... & Fraser, E. (2019a). Automated pastures and the digital divide: How agricultural technologies are shaping labour and rural communities. Journal of Rural Studies, 68, 112-122. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2019.01.023
Rotz, S., Duncan, E., Small, M., Botschner, J., Dara, R., Mosby, I., ... & Fraser, E. D. (2019b). The politics of digital agricultural technologies: a preliminary review. Sociologia Ruralis, 59(2), 203-229. https://doi.org/10.1111/soru.12233
Sadowski, J. (2020). The Internet of Landlords: Digital Platforms and New Mechanisms of Rentier Capitalism. Antipode, 52(2), 562–580. https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12595
Sippel, S. R., & Dolinga, M. (2022). Constructing agri-food for finance: startups, venture capital and food future imaginaries. Agriculture and Human Values. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-022-10383-6
Sippel, S. R. (2023). Tackling land’s ‘stubborn materiality’: the interplay of imaginaries, data and digital technologies within farmland assetization. Agriculture and Human Values, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-023-10453-3
Srnicek, N. (2017). Platform capitalism. John Wiley & Sons.
Statistics Canada. (2022). Table 32-10-0152-01. Number and area of farms and farmland area by tenure, Census of Agriculture historical data, 1921 to 2016, inactive. https://doi.org/10.25318/3210015201-eng
Tight, M. (2010). The curious case of case study: A viewpoint. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 13(4), 329–339. https://doi.org/10/dhg5bh
Veripath Partners. (2021). Veripath Responsible Investment Policy. https://veripathfarmland.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/VRIP-April-2-2021.pdf
Veripath Partners. (2023). Philosophy. https://veripathfarmland.com/philosophy/
Wensley, S. (2020, June 12). Agriculture’s Digital Transformation. https://farmtogether.com/learn/blog/agricultures-digital-transformation
Wiseman, L., Sanderson, J., Zhang, A., & Jakku, E. (2019). Farmers and their data: An examination of farmers’ reluctance to share their data through the lens of the laws impacting smart farming. NJAS: Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences, 90–91(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.njas.2019.04.007
Wolf, S. A., & Buttel, F. H. (1996). The Political Economy of Precision Farming. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 78(5), 1269–1274. https://doi.org/10.2307/1243505
Wolf, S. A., & Wood, S. D. (1997). Precision Farming: Environmental Legitimation, Commodification of Information, and Industrial Coordination1. Rural Sociology, 62(2), 180–206. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1549-0831.1997.tb00650.x
Yin, R. K. (2011). Applications of Case Study Research. SAGE. Thousand Oaks, California, United States.
Zuboff, S. (2019). The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier ofPower. Public Affairs.
Birch, K., & Ward, C. (2022). Assetization and the ‘new asset geographies’. Dialogues in human geography. https://doi.org/10.1177/20438206221130807.
Bjørkhaug, H., Magnan, A., & Lawrence, G. (Eds.). (2018). The financialization of agri-food systems: contested transformations. Routledge.
BNN Bloomberg. (2021, March 2). Buying into farmland as a hedge against inflation: Veripath Partners director. BNN Bloomberg. https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/investing/video/buying-into-farmland-as-a-hedge-against-inflation-veripath-partners-director~2151659
Bronson, K., & Knezevic, I. (2016). Big Data in food and agriculture. Big Data & Society, 3(1), 205395171664817. https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951716648174
Bronson, K. (2022). The Immaculate Conception of Data: Agribusiness, Activists, and their Shared Politics of the Future. McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Burch, D., & Lawrence, G. (2009). Towards a third food regime: behind the transformation. Agriculture and Human Values, 26(4), 267–279. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-009-9219-4
Castree, N. (2005). The epistemology of particulars: Human geography, case studies and ‘context’. Geoforum, 36(5), 541–544. https://doi.org/10/cn49nz
Chmiliar, L. (2010). Multiple-Case Designs. In Encyclopedia of Case Study Research. SAGE Publications, Inc. Thousand Oaks, California, United States. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412957397
Clapp, J. (2018). Mega-mergers on the menu: corporate concentration and the politics of sustainability in the global food system. Global Environmental Politics, 18(2), 12-33. https://doi.org/10.1162/glep_a_00454
Clapp, J., & Isakson, S. R. (2018). Speculative harvests: financialization, food, and agriculture. Practical Action Publishing.
Clapp, J., & Ruder, S. L. (2020). Precision technologies for agriculture: Digital farming, gene-edited crops, and the politics of sustainability. Global Environmental Politics, 20(3), 49-69. https://doi.org/10.1162/glep_a_00566
Cross, B. (2023, February 2). Don’t farm, just own. The Western Producer. https://www.producer.com/news/dont-farm-just-own/
Danaher, J., Hogan, M. J., Noone, C., Kennedy, R., Behan, A., De Paor, A., Felzmann, H., Haklay, M., Khoo, S.-M., Morison, J., Murphy, M. H., O’Brolchain, N., Schafer, B., & Shankar, K. (2017). Algorithmic governance: Developing a research agenda through the power of collective intelligence. Big Data & Society, 4(2), 205395171772655. https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951717726554
Desmarais, A. A., Qualman, D., Magnan, A., & Wiebe, N. (2017). Investor ownership or social investment? Changing farmland ownership in Saskatchewan, Canada. Agriculture and Human Values, 34, 149-166.
Duncan, E., Abdulai, A. R., & Fraser, E. D. (2021a). Modernizing agriculture through digital technologies: Prospects and challenges. Handbook on the human impact of agriculture, 138-161.
Duncan, E., Glaros, A., Ross, D. Z., & Nost, E. (2021b). New but for whom? Discourses of innovation in precision agriculture. Agriculture and Human Values, 38, 1181-1199. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-021-10244-8
Duncan, E., Rotz, S., Magnan, A., & Bronson, K. (2022). Disciplining land through data: The role of agricultural technologies in farmland assetisation. Sociologia Ruralis, 62(2), 231-249. https://doi.org/10.1111/soru.12369
Duncan, E. (2023). The Affordances of Digital Agricultural Technologies (Doctoral dissertation, University of Guelph). https://hdl.handle.net/10214/27831
Fairbairn, M. (2020). Fields of Gold: Financing the Global Land Rush. Cornell University Press.
Fairfax. (2021). 2021 Annual Report. https://s1.q4cdn.com/579586326/files/doc_financials/2021/FF/WEBSITE-Fairfax-Financial%27s-2021-Annual-Report.pdf
Fairfax. (2022). 2022 Annual Report. https://s1.q4cdn.com/579586326/files/doc_downloads/2023/03/WEBSITE-Fairfax-Financial-2022-Annual-Report_v2.pdf
Farmers Edge. (2020a). Digital Ag Gives Farm Managers a Competitive Edge. https://farmersedge.ca/digital-ag-gives-farm-managers-a-competitive-edge/
Farmers Edge. (2020b). Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations. https://farmersedge.ca/investor-relations/reports-and-filings/
FarmTogether. 2023. Frequently Asked Questions. Retrieved May 15, 2023, from https://farmtogether.com/faq?q=d6751ab3-7155-4d0b-aedf-7c4c446a6409
Fields, D. (2019). Automated landlord: Digital technologies and post-crisis financial accumulation. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 54(1), 160–181. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X19846514
FNC. (2022). Farmers National Company partners with Climate FieldView to digitize farm management. https://www.farmersnational.com/news/company-news/farmers-national-company-partners-with-climate-fieldview-to-digitize-farm-management
Fontes, Z. (2022, November 10). Farmers Edge Reports Third Quarter 2022 Results. Farmers Edge. https://farmersedge.ca/farmers-edge-reports-third-quarter-2022-results/
Fontes, Z. (2023, March 15). Farmers Edge Reports Fourth Quarter 2022 Results. Farmers Edge. https://farmersedge.ca/farmers-edge-reports-fourth-quarter-2022-results/
Gardezi, M., & Stock, R. (2021). Growing algorithmic governmentality: Interrogating the social construction of trust in precision agriculture. Journal of Rural Studies, 84, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2021.03.004
Green, A. G., Abdulai, A. R., Duncan, E., Glaros, A., Campbell, M., Newell, R., ... & Fraser, E. D. (2021). A scoping review of the digital agricultural revolution and ecosystem services: implications for Canadian policy and research agendas. Facets, 6(1), 1955-1985. https://doi.org/10.1139/facets-2021-0017
Kiernan-Stone, L. (2022, August 31). Veripath Farmland Partners’ R-Fund Acquires 4,588 Acres in Saskatchewan. Global AgInvesting. https://www.globalaginvesting.com/veripath-farmland-partners-r-fund-acquires-4588ac-saskatchewan/
Klerkx, L., Jakku, E., & Labarthe, P. (2019). A review of social science on digital agriculture, smart farming and agriculture 4.0: New contributions and a future research agenda. NJAS-Wageningen journal of life sciences, 90, 100315. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.njas.2019.100315
Li, T. M. (2014). What is land? Assembling a resource for global investment. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 39(4), 589-602. https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12065
Magnan, A., Wendimu, M., Desmarais, A., & Aske, K. (2022). “It is the Wild West out here”: Prairie farmers’ perspectives on farmland investment and land concentration. Canadian Food Studies/La Revue canadienne des études sur l’alimentation, 9(3), 36-60.
Magnan, A., & Sunley, S. (2017). Farmland investment and financialization in Saskatchewan, 2003–2014: An empirical analysis of farmland transactions. Journal of Rural Studies, 49, 92-103.
Malloy, C. (2023, January 3). What Makes AcreTrader Unique To Investors. https://acretrader.com/learn/acretrader-101/what-makes-acretrader-different
Miles, C. (2019). The combine will tell the truth: On precision agriculture and algorithmic rationality. Big Data & Society, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951719849444
Munch, D. (2023, August 7). U.S. Agricultural Land Values and Croplands Cash Rents Reach New Highs. https://www.fb.org/market-intel/u-s-agricultural-land-values-and-cropland-cash-rents-reach-new-highs#:~:text=Average%20U.S.%20cropland%20rent%20increased,5.2%25%20to%20%24142%20per%20acre.
Ouma, S. (2020). Farming as Financial Asset: Global Finance and the Making of Institutional Landscapes. Agenda Publishing Limited.
Rotz, S., Gravely, E., Mosby, I., Duncan, E., Finnis, E., Horgan, M., ... & Fraser, E. (2019a). Automated pastures and the digital divide: How agricultural technologies are shaping labour and rural communities. Journal of Rural Studies, 68, 112-122. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2019.01.023
Rotz, S., Duncan, E., Small, M., Botschner, J., Dara, R., Mosby, I., ... & Fraser, E. D. (2019b). The politics of digital agricultural technologies: a preliminary review. Sociologia Ruralis, 59(2), 203-229. https://doi.org/10.1111/soru.12233
Sadowski, J. (2020). The Internet of Landlords: Digital Platforms and New Mechanisms of Rentier Capitalism. Antipode, 52(2), 562–580. https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12595
Sippel, S. R., & Dolinga, M. (2022). Constructing agri-food for finance: startups, venture capital and food future imaginaries. Agriculture and Human Values. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-022-10383-6
Sippel, S. R. (2023). Tackling land’s ‘stubborn materiality’: the interplay of imaginaries, data and digital technologies within farmland assetization. Agriculture and Human Values, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-023-10453-3
Srnicek, N. (2017). Platform capitalism. John Wiley & Sons.
Statistics Canada. (2022). Table 32-10-0152-01. Number and area of farms and farmland area by tenure, Census of Agriculture historical data, 1921 to 2016, inactive. https://doi.org/10.25318/3210015201-eng
Tight, M. (2010). The curious case of case study: A viewpoint. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 13(4), 329–339. https://doi.org/10/dhg5bh
Veripath Partners. (2021). Veripath Responsible Investment Policy. https://veripathfarmland.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/VRIP-April-2-2021.pdf
Veripath Partners. (2023). Philosophy. https://veripathfarmland.com/philosophy/
Wensley, S. (2020, June 12). Agriculture’s Digital Transformation. https://farmtogether.com/learn/blog/agricultures-digital-transformation
Wiseman, L., Sanderson, J., Zhang, A., & Jakku, E. (2019). Farmers and their data: An examination of farmers’ reluctance to share their data through the lens of the laws impacting smart farming. NJAS: Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences, 90–91(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.njas.2019.04.007
Wolf, S. A., & Buttel, F. H. (1996). The Political Economy of Precision Farming. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 78(5), 1269–1274. https://doi.org/10.2307/1243505
Wolf, S. A., & Wood, S. D. (1997). Precision Farming: Environmental Legitimation, Commodification of Information, and Industrial Coordination1. Rural Sociology, 62(2), 180–206. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1549-0831.1997.tb00650.x
Yin, R. K. (2011). Applications of Case Study Research. SAGE. Thousand Oaks, California, United States.
Zuboff, S. (2019). The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier ofPower. Public Affairs.
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