U.S. farmland is a significantly under-owned institutional asset class with strong fundamentals, including non-correlation to other assets and a positive correlation with inflation.
The most lucrative opportunities in farmland investing often come from converting the land's use to solar energy or data center development, which can yield returns many multiples higher than traditional farming.
The Great Lakes region is the most attractive area for farmland investment due to its abundant water, favorable regulatory environment, and insulation from the most severe climate change risks.
Investing in California farmland is unattractive for commodity crops due to excessive water and labor regulations.
Water rights will become a critical and contentious issue globally, leading to increased regulation and impacting agricultural operations.
Podcast Appearance (Masters in Business)
Brandon Zick presented a comprehensive investment thesis for U.S. farmland, emphasizing its low institutional ownership, inflation-hedging properties, and significant upside from alternative uses like solar and data centers. He detailed the Saris Farmland Fund's strategy of focusing on the Great Lakes region to mitigate climate and regulatory risks, while predicting that water rights would become a major global issue and competition in the asset class would intensify.
▶Farmland as a Strategic Alternative AssetJun 2026
Zick positions farmland as an underutilized asset class for institutional investors, highlighting its low current institutional ownership (3%). He emphasizes its financial benefits, including a historical 6% annual appreciation, positive correlation with inflation, and non-correlation with other assets, making it a strong portfolio diversifier.
Zick's framing suggests a significant opportunity for early-mover institutional investors to enter a market that is not yet saturated, potentially capturing alpha before competition increases as he predicts.
▶The 'Highest and Best Use' RevolutionJun 2026
Zick details the immense financial upside of converting agricultural land to energy or technology infrastructure. He claims selling land for data centers can yield 8 to 20 times its agricultural value, while leasing for solar can generate income 3 to 5 times higher than farming.
This theme reveals that the core value proposition of Zick's farmland investment strategy may lie less in agricultural production and more in the optionality for lucrative land-use conversion, especially in proximity to power and data hubs.
▶Geographic and Climate ArbitrageJun 2026
Zick's investment vehicle, Saris Farmland Fund, deliberately avoids regulated markets like California and concentrates its holdings (nearly 90%) in the Great Lakes region. This strategy is explicitly designed to mitigate risks from climate change, water scarcity, and burdensome labor regulations.
This geographic focus represents a clear bet on the long-term stability and resource abundance of the American Midwest over coastal and arid regions, positioning the fund to capitalize on potential climate-driven agricultural shifts.
▶The Landlord Model in Modern FarmingJun 2026
The Saris Farmland Fund operates by purchasing land and leasing it to active family farmers, rather than engaging in direct farm operations. This model separates land ownership from agricultural production, allowing the fund to focus on asset management while leveraging the operational expertise of local farmers.
This business model de-risks the investment by avoiding the operational complexities and volatilities of farming itself, turning the asset into a more predictable real estate play with rental income streams.