Trees devouring sheep: climate rentierism and the financialised land grabbing of Welsh farmland

Welsh farming continues to suffer post-Brexit uncertainty and low profitability. Investment companies are buying relatively cheap Welsh farmland for the purposes of climate rentierism, timber production and asset price speculation. This article contributes a theoretical clarification on the drivers of financialised land grabbing, climate rentierism and carbon offsetting, and a case study of the actions of Foresight Group PLC, Foresight Sustainable Forestry Company PLC and their acquisition of Welsh farms. I argue that this process of rentierised, financialised land grabbing is driving Welsh farmland in the direction of a capitalist green transition that renders agrarian populations surplus to the needs of capital, and in the process begins a change in the character of agrarian social relations according to the dictates of finance capital and climate rentiers.