AgReserves Incorporated
AgReserves Inc. is a for-profit company, owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which together with other Church-run agricultural affiliates, owns about 1 million acres in the continental United States on which the Church has farms, orchards, ranches, and hunting preserves. AgReserves also operates in Britain, Canada, Australia, Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil. Some of the Church-owned land is leased to farmers.
KSL-TV recently announced in November 2013 that the Church, through their AgReserves affiliate, would purchase approximately 400,000 acres in the panhandle region of Florida.[1] AgReserves plans to maintain the land’s current timber and agricultural uses according to the highest environmental standards.
The AgReserves Inc. website simply offers a statement from past president of the Church, Gordon B. Hinckley, that serves as a mission statement in line with the Church’s teachings on provident living and self-sufficiency: “We have felt that good farms, over a long period, represent a safe investment where the assets of the Church may be preserved and enhanced, while at the same time they are available as an agricultural resource to feed people should there come a time of need.”
AgReserves produces for the commercial market. AgReserves, Deseret Cattle and Citrus Ranch, and Farmland Reserve, Inc., are maintained by the Church’s Presiding Bishopric.
