Agricultural commodities will serve as a lucrative investment in the coming years, says noted commodities bull Jim Rogers.
Stocks won't perform well until major industrialized nations pay down their debts and make their economies more competitive, which won't happen overnight.
But people need to eat and considering demand is rising as emerging-market economies like China and India grow and bring millions out of poverty, prices will rise as supplies are already tight.
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"There are many ways to invest in agriculture. The best is to become a farmer," Rogers tells Moneynews.TV.
"You can buy farmland, you can invest in seed companies, fertilizer companies, tractor companies — there are many ways to invest in agriculture."
Investors shouldn't limit themselves to U.S. markets either.
"You can invest in agricultural countries — Canada is more agriculturally oriented than we are. So is Australia. There are plenty of ways to invest in agriculture. The best way is to become a farmer or to invest in agriculture products."
While inventories are low, a labor shortage is worsening and will send prices higher down the road.
"We have a shortage of farmers developing. The average age of farmers in America is 58, in Australia it's 58, in Japan it's 66 and in Canada, farmers are as old as they have ever been in recorded history," Rogers says.
"The world is running out of farmers, so the price of agricultural products has to go up a lot," he warned. "Or we're not going to have any food at any price."
Meanwhile, when prices rise, expect talent — and money — to rush to the sector, hopefully.
"Prices have to go a lot higher to attract labor, capital and management to agriculture. More people in America study physical education or PR than study agriculture. We got a huge problem facing us."
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