OUR MISSION

Peak Soil Indexes aims to construct responsible, accurate, synthetic farmland indexes. PSI’s indexes allow for economic equivalent investments to physical ownership with liquidity and transparency. Investment vehicles derived from our indexes will satisfy the increasing demand for farmland.

OUR VISION

Despite attempts to mainstream farmland, it remains an undeveloped commodity. Peak Soil Indexes has maintained that the democratization of farmland can only start with usable, market accepted indexes. PSI sees derivative expansion starting with ETFs and private investment funds, evolving into futures, options and customized offerings.

Financializing Farmland

With each passing day, the investment community becomes more intrigued with farmland as an asset class. Investor interest became noticeably apparent during the commodity super cycle and has continued since. More recent inflationary fears have fueled enthusiasm even further. However, attempts to satisfy demand have been insufficient and farmland still lacks traits common to other asset classes.

One can only anticipate increased interest in today’s hostile geo-political climate. There will also be close to 10 billion people to feed by 2050. Despite precision agricultural advances, accomplishing that goal will be challenging in an environment of climate change, land degradation and drying aquifers.

That same period of time also witnessed exponential growth in ETFs and passive investment products. Growth continues with minor ETF innovations still occurring. Unfortunately, there seem to be fewer popular big picture opportunities presented. Many new releases are coming from obscure indexes or thinner sections of a broader market. Releases have hardly overwhelmed investors and meaningful successes have decreased.

PSI believes investors are not only seeking alternative farmland investments but also more ETF innovations of substance. PSI’s indexes and ETFs could be an ideal match to deliver the sought-after farmland derivative. While an ETF would bring broad market exposure, the flexibility of private offerings opens other possibilities.

PSI’s focus on machine learning has allowed for index constructions that can be used for innovative product offerings. The significance of derivatives for our most strategic commodity cannot be understated. A new farmland ETF would be comparable to the introduction of gold and oil ETFs. Farmland can be said to be the source of our very existence. Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States, said “civilization itself rests upon the soil.” Farmland, with but a few inches of valuable topsoil, is the gold of the future.

Unlike other commodities, farmland has never been intertwined with the inventive side of the financial marketplace. It’s been somewhat of a backwoods commodity with few modernizations. Access is still restrictive and ownership complex. PSI intends to elevate farmland to the contemporary status of other investments. Rejuvenation of the commodity can even usher in de facto benchmarks for pricings and valuations, filling the void of a non-existent spot price.

Investors should have liquid access to a farmland proxy. The opportunity for relative value determinations and portfolio allocations should absolutely be available. The existence of a derivative allows for those investment commitments. The lack of a liquid alternative investment is all that limits farmland’s use for an inflation hedge, safe-haven investment or for diversification purposes. That’s just not acceptable any longer and can correctly be addressed with PSIs synthetic indexes.

Why Farmland Indexes?

Farmland has become an increasingly popular asset class, yet burdensome to own.
Many investors are currently unable to take advantage of farmland's attractive investment attributes. Financial, legal, operational and other deterrents all discourage ownership.
A physical investment in farmland is a long-term commitment with questionable liquidity.
Demand is universally expected to increase.
Farmland has attractive investment features; it has a low correlation to other asset classes and high correlation to inflation.
Increased liquidity encourages participation from a broader user base.
There are limited alternatives to physical ownership. All lack liquidity.
No adequate hedging tools are available for those with market exposure.
Farmland has constructive long term investment features similar to those found in other strategic commodities.
A track record of being a superior inflation hedge than gold and other commodities.
Current farmland indexes are questionable. A legitimate synthetic index that can serve as a spot price.
Farmland indexes can be tailored to specific geographic regions and land quality.
A commodity with both interested buyers and sellers. A bullish and bearish case for investing can often be made at the same time.
Benchmark farmland indexes provide the foundation for product development beyond ETFs, such as futures and options.