Agriculture startup grows crowdfunding platform to feed the hungry

Farmland is a key part of American history and its economy, and yet people today are increasingly disconnected from the land and people that grow our food.

Fquare is a company that helps investors customize and manage their land investment portfolio, and today it announced that it’s launching a crowdfunding initiative to feed the hungry. Food may be everywhere in America, but it is not always affordable. With 15 percent of the country living below the poverty line, many families cannot afford to buy nutritious ingredients, and too many children are underfed, obese, and/or hungry.

Fquare seeks to remedy this issue with a service people can use to donate money to buy local farms. It rents these out to area farmers who instead of paying cash for rent pay with donated food by delivering the harvest to local food banks. In theory, farmers get access to additional farm land at no monetary cost, and food banks receive farm-grown products.

This initiative seeks to make investing in land about more than just financial gains and income. Ultimately, farms are about food and feeding people, and Fquare is giving people who invest in farmland the opportunity to give back to the agricultural community and fill food banks as well as bank accounts.

We talk a lot about investing in Silicon Valley and occasionally about investments in farming-related startups, but investment in actual land is generally outside the scope of tech-focused portfolios. Land may not be as sexy as software and social media, but it is a fairly stalwart place to place money. However, it often involves a certain degree of upkeep. Fquare hellps accredited investors become co-owners of farmland and then managed farmland investments on their behalf.

Fquare is based in New York. Read the press release. 

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