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Long abstract:

Studies on the financialization of farmland have focused on the driving role of the agricultural and climatic crisis. Investors in search of secure value take refuge in what appears to be like "gold with yield" (Fairbairn, 2020), i.e. an asset whose value derives from both storage value and agricultural production. However, these studies do not consider the emergence of a new type of funds investing in farmland based on new valorizations of farmland linked to the environmental crisis. With the recognition of the contribution of agricultural soils to carbon storage and biodiversity protection, new investment funds explicitly capitalize on these new environmental values of farmland. Based on an ethnographic survey of these funds (interviews, observation of investors' conferences) conducted on a French and European scale, the article will explore the articulation of financial-agricultural-environmental values in the construction of farmland profitability. In particular, it will highlight the instrumental role played by intermediaries in this market, i.e. the players who certify CO2 storage or biodiversity credits, whether private or public. On this basis, it will highlight the role of environmental policy in the financialization of farmland and will discuss the changes these developments have brought about in traditional farmland regulation and its objective of protecting agricultural activity.