The Saudis need to start buying up North Dakota farmland. Before the Chinese do.
Yeah . . . except that there is a problem. The owners of that land know about the minerals underground - and although the Saudis may make the payoff of those minerals speculative, they cannot unring the bell of the knowledge of their potential value. I don’t think North Dakota “farmland” will be a glut on the mart. You can probably buy the land - but the mineral rights, not so much. The owners will be leaving those rights to their heirs in their wills.
Farmland does not equal oil, mineral ownership does and that ain’t been for sale in a long time. SD may be one of the States that limit foreign ownership.
Don't use the word "Farm" when talking to any of the ranchers out in western NoDak. They're pretty sensitive about that.
Once, when in the Bowman area looking for a place to shoot prairie dogs, I stopped at a ranch and asked the owner. Once I said the words 'field" and 'farm', he lit up like a roman candles. To wit: "Do you see a plow around here? I ranch." I left out a few non-PG adjetives.
Then he told me to get the hell off his property.
Why? Farm prices aren’t in the tank, and a lot of farmers are flush with oil money, too. Agriculture is our other major industry up here. We don’t need a bunch of foreign buyers coming in and buying up farmland.