AgReserves, Inc. (AgReserves) is a diversified, multinational agriculture for-profit and private company ultimately owned by
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Christianity, Christian church that considers itself to be the Restorationism, restoration of the ...
(LDS Church) and based in
Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...
. It is speculated that AgReserves holds the "most valuable private real estate portfolio in the U.S."
AgReserves' three divisions operate in more than 30 states and international operations in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The three divisions include Cattle (dairy and beef with integrated supply chain trace-ability), Permanent Plantings (farming of almonds, pistachios, walnuts, pecan, olives, citrus), and Row Crops (farming of corn, wheat, alfalfa, carrots, corn, peas, onions, potatoes). As of 2021, Doug Rose is the CEO of AgReserves.Croft, Tim "Nature Conservancy purchases land at Lake Wimico" ''
Gannett
Gannett Co., Inc. () is an American mass media holding company headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.Deseret Ranches, part of the Cattle division of AgReserves, encompasses 295,000-acres and extends across Orange, Osceola and Brevard counties and is seen as critical to the Orlando region's water supply.Spear, Kevin "Mormon church-owned company buys huge swath of Florida land" ''
Orlando Sentinel
The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is the primary newspaper of Orlando, Florida, and the Central Florida region. It was founded in 1876 and is currently owned by Tribune Publishing Company.
The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is owned by parent company, '' Tribune P ...
'', 7 November 2013. Retrieved on 11 March 2020. The ranch is home to about a quarter million citrus trees, timberland, tree farms, commercial crops, and large deposits of fossilized seashells used in road base.
In 2013 AgReserves purchased 382,834 acres from
St. Joe Company
The St. Joe Company is a land development company headquartered in Panama City Beach, Florida. Founded in 1936 and until 1966 known as St. Joe Paper Company, the company still operates a forestry division but is primarily engaged in real estate d ...
in Bay, Calhoun, Franklin, Gadsden, Gulf, Jefferson, Leon, Liberty and Wakulla counties. The land, primarily timberland, was purchased for $565 million. As of 2014, the LDS Church was Florida's largest private landowner. AgReserves also owns substantial agricultural land in the United Kingdom. In 2020, AgReserves sold more than 20,000 acres of land surrounding Lake Wimico in Florida to
The Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is a global environmental organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. it works via affiliates or branches in 79 countries and territories, as well as across every state in the US.
Founded in 1951, The Natu ...
who then donated the land to the state and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
Associated Business Units
The AgReserves primary website does not provide information on the operating arms or the regional distinctions of its subsidiary business units. The confusion can be illustrated by an article referencing the Easterday Companies purchase where the Farmland Reserves is depicted as a parent company of AgReserves, and AgriNorthwest is a subsidiary of one of the two. All are referenced as the new potential owner/operators of the Easterday purchase. There are no publicly available lists of farms owned or managed by AgReserves or its subsidiaries. There are also no clear official statements depicting the operating relationships of business or farm units. Some have interpreted this as a purposeful obfuscation of the size (both financial and farm/business units) of the for-profit agricultural arm of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Businesses Related to AgReserves or other agricultural business units of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints include the following:
United States
* Farmland Reserve
* Farm Management Co.
* Deseret Ranches (Florida Trees, Fruit, and Cattle)
* Deseret Land and Livestock (Utah)
AgriNorthwest
Outside of the United States
* Farmland Reserve UK Ltd
* AgReserves Austrailia