paper money doomed gold will rise, page-46

Yellowcake is convinced that agriculture and agricultural related investment is the way to go.
He may be right.

But there's still great risks in his model, which I haven't seen him rationally answer.

1. Sovereign risk. Countries can, and do, confiscate land and assets (Zimbabwe).
2. Climate variance, short and long term. Short - If it doesn't rain, then the broad-acre cereal crops don't grow. And you don't know until the seed and fertiliser is already in the ground. Long - If climate change is occuring (whatever the cause) then if the change is unfavourable, you cannot pick your farm up and move it.
3. Access to fertiliser, chemicals and petroleum products. All modern farming is highly dependant on reliable supply chains and access to cheap products. Most ground is producing way above it's capacity because of these artificial inputs.
4. Land degredation and salinity. On the rise on a massive scale, especially in Australia. Fragile soils, very thin or non-existant topsoil, rampant weeds only kept in check by ever increasing strength and application rates of herbicide.
5. Products are bulky and can only be effectively transported using the same supply chains noted above for imports.

The idea of a self-sufficient farm is quaint but very difficult to achieve. Everyone relies on some things from somewhere else, if we try and maintain a modern standard of living. Thus we need to trade. Some people unblock toilets. Some people bury the dead. That won't stop either. The plumber likely won't want 2 tonnes of wheat as payment for fixing the dunnie. He might take a measure of gold though, and pay the farmer for a bag of wheat with some of it. We need a medium of exchange.

Gold is desirable, because it is rare, malleable, virtually indestructible and cannot be created except in a nuclear reactor. Thus it is a fixed measure of wealth, the only reason it continues to rise against all the fiat currencies is that the governments keep printing so much money.