Peoples Perspective

Peoples Company Energy Management hosted a webinar on Thursday, August 28, 2025, with special guest speaker Brad Haight, attorney and Lease Gen founder, to discuss the complexities of valuing farmland with solar and renewable energy projects.

When corporations decide to dispose of real estate outside of core urban markets, they often encounter a unique and complex set of challenges.

So far this week, I’ve heard the same expression from two completely unrelated sources: “Old __________ would be rolling over in his grave if he knew his kids were fighting like this!” It’s only Wednesday. There’s a real chance I could hear it again before the week is out.

Soil productivity indexes are among the most valuable tools for classifying farmland. These indexes offer a consistent way to measure agricultural land. Soil types and characteristics can vary significantly not just from one region to another, but between neighboring properties.

This week, President Donald Trump announced a sweeping $750 billion energy agreement with the European Union, outlining decades-long purchases of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and other U.S. fossil fuel exports.

In this edition of the Landowner Insights series, Dr. Dave Muth of Peoples Company Capital Markets is joined by Liz Krause, CPA and Senior Manager at MHCS; Paul Neiffer, CPA and primary author of the FarmCPAReport.com blog; and Tyler Bruch, CEO, Founder, and Farmer at Boa Safra Ag, LLC. Together, they discuss the tax benefits of farmland ownership.

For investors with conviction in well-developed agricultural investment strategies, a disciplined approach, and an ability to truly hold for the long-term, the opportunity to assemble a high-quality California farm portfolio of scale has never been better.

As America faces a massive farmland transition, Peoples Company releases a powerful play, video, and guide to help landowners navigate inheritance and preserve their legacy.

While farmland value is primarily driven by land quality, water rights, and production potential, agribusiness assets are valued based on operational efficiency and EBITDA performance, with technology, processing capacity, and supply chain management playing key roles.

I was raised outside Boulder, Colorado, near the mountains but far removed from large-scale production agriculture. Still, I developed a passion for the agricultural industry early on—riding horses and raising livestock on my family’s small acreage.