Wall Street Investors Eager to Buy 400 Million Acres of U.S. Farmland

Investors are lining up to purchase half of all U.S. farmland as more farmers near retirement, a move that an Oakland Institute reports says could threaten the nation's food supply.

The report from the California think tank says investors from hedge funds, pension funds, private-equity firms and college endowments see opportunity in what they see as growing value in farmland.

Oakland Institute's Down on the Farm report says investors see huge value in acquiring land for industrial farming, fossil fuel production and hydraulic fracturing, the term used to describe the practice of removing natural gas from shale rock.

Opportunities to purchase the land will arise as a growing number of farmers prepare to retire over the next two decades.

Here's the Oakland Institute report