This paper explores the relationship between farmland investment and environmental uncertainty. It examines how farmland investors seek to “render land investible” (Li, Trans Inst Br Geographers 39:589–602, 2014) in spite of drought, groundwater depletion, and changing regulations. To do so, we analyze a single case study: the purchase of 8000 acres of dry rangeland in California’s Cuyama Valley by the Harvard University endowment for use in creating an irrigated vineyard. Drawing from interviews with Cuyama Valley farmers and community members, participant observation at community meetings, and public document analysis, we make two primary contributions to understandings of uncertain resource materiality in farmland investment. First, this case reveals that investors can turn environmental uncertainty into an advantage, exploiting both the temporal uncertainties associated with resource management under climate change and the spatial uncertainties inherent to all subsurface resources. We argue that the material and legal uncertainties of groundwater access provide investors with a potentially lucrative opening to assert their preferred land imaginaries and improve their property values. In the Cuyama Valley they did so through both participation in groundwater governance and the establishment of water-related infrastructure on their property. Second, this case highlights that the asset-making processes involved in farmland investment may be as much vertical as they are horizontal. The need to map and measure the uncertain vertical dimension of land creates an outsized role for scientific expertise in farmland assetization.

中文翻译：

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在真实的葡萄酒中，在水产中：加利福尼亚州库亚马山谷的农田投资、环境不确定性和地下水获取

本文探讨了农田投资与环境不确定性之间的关系。它探讨了农田投资者如何在干旱、地下水枯竭和法规不断变化的情况下寻求“使土地可投资”（Li, Trans Inst Br Geographers 39:589–602, 2014）。为此，我们分析了一个案例研究：哈佛大学捐赠基金在加利福尼亚州库亚马谷购买了 8000 英亩的旱地，用于建造灌溉葡萄园。通过对 Cuyama 山谷农民和社区成员的采访、社区会议的参与者观察以及公共文件分析，我们对理解农田投资中不确定的资源重要性做出了两个主要贡献。首先，这个案例揭示了投资者可以将环境不确定性转化为优势，利用与气候变化下资源管理相关的时间不确定性和所有地下资源固有的空间不确定性。我们认为，地下水获取的物质和法律不确定性为投资者提供了一个潜在的有利可图的机会，以维护他们喜欢的土地想象并提高他们的财产价值。在 Cuyama 山谷，他们通过参与地下水治理和在他们的财产上建立与水相关的基础设施来实现这一目标。其次，这个案例强调了农田投资所涉及的资产创造过程可能是纵向的，也可能是横向的。绘制和测量不确定的土地垂直维度的需要为农田资产化中的科学专业知识创造了巨大的作用。