In the past 24 months the traditional retirement model of putting the majority of one’s assets into traditional real estate and the stock market has been proven to be extremely risky.  With the collapse of the world financial markets and the real estate bubble, investors have seen over a decade’s worth of gains evaporate.  Even more unfortunate, some retirees realized their losses by liquidating their portfolio with the reasoning that they could at least retire with what they have left.  Of course having all of that cash introduces new inflation risk, which is inevitable with the tremendous rise of the national debt.  Gold has been one of the traditional hedges against inflation, however gold does not bring an annual return.  More importantly, during a massive global depression or war, what are the benefits of owning gold?  Will it produce food?  Will it produce energy?  It is our strong belief that every family should invest into irrigated investment-grade farmland, which not only provides a yearly cash return but appreciates with the ever increasing demand for food, fiber and biofuel.