What owns the land: the corporate organization of farmland investment

Novel investment vehicles continue to dominate discussions of the financial entities driving the global land rush. However, less attention has been devoted to the mundane elements of such investment, primarily the corporate structure that undergirds it. Using US public records, our analysis reveals how absentee and complex corporate structures enable the financialization of farmland. While the latest farmland investment has the fresh face of the who, such as private equity funds, we conclude that the what of its corporate skeleton is older, calling for dialogue between studies of corporate organization, landownership, and financialization.