Fields of Gold: Financing the Global Land Rush

Cornell Series on Land: New Perspectives on Territory, Development, and Environment

by Madeleine Fairbairn

Fields of Gold critically examines the history, ideas, and political struggles surrounding the financialization of farmland. In particular, Madeleine Fairbairn focuses on developments in two of the most popular investment locations, the US and Brazil, looking at the implications of financiers' acquisition of land and control over resources for rural livelihoods and economic justice.

At the heart of Fields of Gold is a tension between efforts to transform farmland into a new financial asset class, and land's physical and social properties, which frequently obstruct that transformation. But what makes the book unique among the growing body of work on the global land grab is Fairbairn's interest in those acquiring land, rather than those affected by land acquisitions. Fairbairn's work sheds ethnographic light on the actors and relationships--from Iowa to Manhattan to S�o Paulo--that have helped to turn land into an attractive financial asset class.

Thanks to generous funding from UC Santa Cruz, the ebook editions of this book are available as Open Access volumes from Cornell Open (cornellopen.org) and other repositories.

234 pages, Paperback

Published July 15, 2020

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredible clear and thoughtful breakdown of a complex and rapidly shifting dynamic - "drawing out the slender filaments connecting financial change to agrarian change" (132). Particularly good for understanding dynamics of land financialization and the political and market histories thereof in the US and Brazil; the crises of capital that motivate attempts to render land investible as "swelling pools" of global capital seek safe haven in real assets; and the uneasiness and instability of rendering land (per Polanyi, at best a 'fictitious' commodity) investible:

"Land has enormous cultural significance, standing in different times and places as a link to a valued agrarian way of life, a spiritual home, and the resting places of ancestors, to name just a few. Land also acts as territory - a crucial symbol of national sovereignty and pride. This ungainly commodity will not tuck neatly into financial portfolios, and it is fascinating to watch the attempt in progress" (10).

[Nils Jepson · Rating 5 out of 5]

incredibly lucid and organized in a way that maximized direct takeaways. i liked how she would be like "here's what polanyi would say about this" or "in harvey's frame of mind," etc. etc. not so much in that she used it as a way to "both-sides" financialization but to just really clearly illustrate her influences and lay out her argument.

i always think books like this are kind of interesting because, despite being so grounded in ethnographic research, they spend most of the time in literature review and historical analysis. i almost wanted it to be a bit more memoir-y, like, i was sitting at this happy hour talking to a top Brazilian finance bro, who was saying this.

either way, learned a lot and i think clarified a lot of other things for more about financialization, esp re: housing and neoclassical economic thinking.

[William O. II · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great look at the continuing attempts to financialize land.