Developing local food sources

The movement toward growing and purchasing food locally is discussed in  in The New York Times article, Small farmers creating a new business model as agriculture goes local.  One example of this trend provided in the article is of a former manager at Microsoft, Naraenda Varma, who invested two million dollars of his money in 58-acres of farm land and new-farmer training.   He h as chosen to move from the high pressure, fast paced world of technology into the slow and often physically demanding real work of farming (my emphasis). This is an example of the Slow Money movement, which invests as if food, farms and fertility mattered.

The Department of Agriculture now believes that the local food industry is worth as much as $4.8 billion, much larger than previously figured.

As cheap immigrant labor becomes educated and skilled in other areas the cost for producing food on large corporate farms might be increasing.

So perhaps if you've got a couple of million you're not sure how to invest, why not consider a few acres of farm land near to an urban area? Then be prepared to get your fingernails dirty.