The Absolute Return Letter - March 2012: The Protein Bomb
The World's population will grow from 7 billion to 8.3 billion people over the next decade. Meanwhile, arable land across the world will shrink and living standards will continue to rise, with the OECD projecting 3 billion new middle class consumers over the next 20 years. Many of these people will change their diets in favour of more animal protein. Livestock is quite inefficient in terms of converting grain to energy, so the pressure on farmers to deliver more produce will be immense.
We conclude that agriculture should be represented in every long-term portfolio, but farm land has already risen a lot in value. Are there other and better ways to be exposed to agriculture? These and other questions are addressed in this month's Absolute Return Letter.
- The Absolute Return Letter, February 2014: Challenging The Consensus
Link to: The Absolute Return Letter, February 2014: Challenging the Consensus Investors are overwhelmingly bearish on bonds going into 2014. In this month’s Absolute Return Letter we challenge that view and look at various reasons why the bond...
- Gates Foundation: 2012 Annual Letter From Bill Gates
Throughout my careers in software and philanthropy—and in each of my annual letters—a recurring theme has been that innovation is the key to improving the world. When innovators work on urgent problems and deliver solutions to people in need, the...
- Bill Gates: Growing Enough Food To Feed The World
How can we feed a growing population in the midst of climate change and an appetite for more meat? These factors and more are straining the world’s agricultural capacity and pushing up the cost of food, which makes it difficult for the world’s poorest...
- The Absolute Return Letter - December 2011: The Facts They Don’t Want You To Know
This month's letter is not a typical Absolute Return Letter but it is something that I feel strongly about and wanted to write about for a long time. I hope you will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. The message is simple: Our industry...
- Jared Diamond: What’s Your Consumption Factor?
TO mathematicians, 32 is an interesting number: it’s 2 raised to the fifth power, 2 times 2 times 2 times 2 times 2. To economists, 32 is even more special, because it measures the difference in lifestyles between the first world and the developing...