Partnering with progressive farmers, I.F. buys and improves farmland to sustainably grow high-quality food.
Investing in farmland, infrastructure, and biological assets, I.F. increases food supply efficiencies.
Through advances in agronomy and innovative technologies, we help to maximize farm yields and deliver returns across our platform and funds.
Streamlining the food supply chain, I.F. invests in packaging, marketing, and distribution.
“
We stand at a juncture in history where we must reimagine, redesign, and rebuild our agriculture and food systems.
– CHARLIE McNAIRY, CEO
Peach Harvest
Fort Valley, Georgia
Cilantro Farm
Vero, Florida
Whether it’s from generations of family agribusiness or childhoods spent working in the field, our ties to farming run deep. From our various beginnings, we developed skills, connections, and expertise across a range of industries that inform our work today. Agriculture is not just a career path for us—it’s our way of life.ck
Maintaining a spirit of humility and continuously striving for improvement, our team possesses a breadth of farming experience gained worldwide—from the Americas, Africa, and Eastern Europe. With a history of farming going back to 1827 and ~500,000 acres transacted across the U.S. and Australia, IFC has invested over $2.1 billion in assets2.
Farmers want to work with us because they know we respect the wisdom they hold and landowners
sell to us because we know how big of a decision that is.
We aren’t finance people who have recently decided to get into farming. We are Farmers with
Capital.
Our approach to tracking data is a lot like “nouns” and “verbs.” “Nouns” are the farms themselves, the parcel maps, and data layers that establish the baseline, including soil type. Then, we track the “verbs,” which are the activities on the farms, including water and nutrient input, changes in soil biology, tillage, and so forth.
In 2015, International Farming began developing its own proprietary data sciences platform, Myelin, which automates various aspects of risk analysis and mitigation related to the investment process. Myelin also captures key finance, agronomy, and sustainability metrics. Myelin’s analyses are used by International Farming’s Underwriting team to review several climate-related factors such as weather, water, and soil health early in the investment due diligence process.
Farmadvisor (FA), a cloud-based agricultural marketplace, empowers International Farming to make data-driven decisions when leasing, managing, buying, and selling farmland through real-time analytics and reporting. At the same time, it simplifies leasing processes, expense management, and procurement while providing discounts and efficiencies for farmers. FA offers field and farm-specific data tracking while increasing transparency and collaboration amongst farmland owners, growers, and suppliers.
International Farming has developed a close partnership with CropTrak, a farm operations workflow management system. CropTrak pulls in inputs from various sources and translates the information into on-farm management processes that can be implemented and tracked over time. This software tool enables International Farming to systematically understand the inputs and outputs generated at the farm level and provide a feedback mechanism for how the farms are performing.
Through our Top Grower® Program, we partner with farmers to assist them in expanding their
operations which may improve profitability. We do this through the application of new
technologies, sustainable best management practices, capital resources, and optimization of
their crop yield potential.
Adopting best practices, growers will have access to our lower input prices, technology
platforms, operational expertise, and economies of scale.
Larger Than U.S. Averages
Younger Than U.S. Averages
Family Farmers
International Farming partners with growers, industry professionals, and other collaborators to evaluate the latest product and technology advances via our Top Trials® program. Trials span a broad range of technologies, from new seed and genetic potential to pre-commercial herbicide and technology evaluations. To date, more than 340+ top trials have been conducted3.
We have an active management strategy, with a field services team consisting of Regional
Agriculture Agronomic Managers (“RAAMs”) who live in the areas where we have farms. These RAAMs
visit with the growers several times a year, have a strong relationship with them, and dialog
with them about various aspects of farm management related to financial performance, farming
practices, and ESG factors.
Mitigating climate change concerns is at the center of creating a sustainable agriculture production and food system. And, soil health is one of the most important issues of our time.
If we as a society don’t turn more attention and support our farmers in rebuilding our soil, we face a huge threat to the future of agriculture and our food systems.
95% of our food is grown in the uppermost layer of soil, called topsoil. At current soil loss rates, some estimates say we could run out of topsoil in 60 years.
By utilizing and educating our farmers on best practices such as regular testing, cover crops, crop rotation, and conservation tillage, I.F. is working hard to do our part.
Currently, food systems account for 1/3 of greenhouse gas emissions and Nitrogen Fertilizer Production alone accounts globally for 1.4% of Carbon Dioxide Emissions and 1% of the world’s total energy production.
Between 2018-2021 International Farming planted three million+ trees and helped to reduce carbon emissions by up to 240,000 metric tons per year.