The Real Estate Espresso Podcast

On today’s show we are talking about the impact of the macroeconomics environment on the world real estate investing so much of what is happening in the economy is being dominated by the macro economic environment. ----------------- Host: Victor Menasce email: podcast@victorjm.com

Trevor Oldham is the owner of podcastingyou.com, a podcast booking service where aspiring guests can get exposure by being booked on podcasts. Trevor brings the experience of being a show host, a show producer, and a show editor. The breadth of experience in all these roles makes for a good agent, knowing how to provide value to both the guests and the show hosts. To connect and to learn more, visit podcastingyou.com/realestateespresso ------------------ Host: Victor Menasce email: podcast@victorjm.com

On today's show we're taking a case study out of George's law school course on negotiation from when he was teaching at NYU. It's a case where he was negotiating on behalf of his client Sol Goldman with Bill Zeckendorf a well known and highly respected name in New York real estate. ------------------------ Host: Victor Menasce email: podcast@victorjm.com

Today and every day this week we are looking at some aspect of food security and the major shifts that are putting enormous strain on our global food supply. We are already experiencing acute shortages all over the world. On Monday’s show we talked about how dietary preferences have increased the demand for grain on a global basis as more and more people shift from plant based diets to consuming more animal protein. On Tuesday’s show we talk about how more and more farm land is being diverted from food production to growing for bio-fuels like Ethanol and biodiesel. On Wednesday’s show we talked about how energy markets are effecting the supply of fertilizer and how fertilizer use is down 5% so far this year which is expected to have an immediate 2% decrease in food yields. On Thursday’s show we talked about at what happens when there are food shortages. We start to see the rise of food nationalism. On today’s show we are looking what happens when you shift your food production from using synthetic fertilizer to organic. We are looking specifically at Sri Lanka and the major impact it had on their national economy. Don’t get me wrong. I love the idea of organic farming. I personally buy organically grown fruits and vegetables whenever I can. The shift started in Spring of 2021 when Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa put a ban on agrochemicals. His goal was an ambitious one: to transform Sri Lanka into the first nation with 100-percent organic agriculture. Less than a year later, the country is left in an economic and supply shortage crisis as a result. ---------------- Host: Victor Menasce

Today and every day this week we are looking at some aspect of food security and the major shifts that are putting enormous strain on our global food supply. We are already experiencing acute shortages all over the world. If you like Chicken, then don’t try to order it in a restaurant in Singapore. If you like Dijon mustard, don’t try to order it in France. On Monday’s show we talked about how dietary preferences have increased the demand for grain on a global basis as more and more people shift from plant based diets to consuming more animal protein. On Tuesday’s show we talk about how more and more farm land is being diverted from food production to growing for bio-fuels like Ethanol and biodiesel. On Wednesday’s show we talked about how energy markets are effecting the supply of fertilizer and how fertilizer use is down 5% so far this year which is expected to have an immediate 2% decrease in food yields. On today’s show we are looking at what happens when there are food shortages. We start to see the rise of food nationalism. The last time we saw food nationalism on a large scale was in the 1970’s. It’s a phenomenon that has historical precedence. Today we already have about 20% of the world’s food supply under some kind of export restriction. There are numerous examples. Some countries produce far more than they need domestically to serve their population. Other countries have very little in the way of domestic production of certain foods and rely almost entirely on imports for their daily food. A case in point is Malaysia which has halted its chicken exports in an effort to safeguard its domestic supply, which leaves people in Singapore struggling to find chicken as authorities suggest the public opt for frozen poultry alternatives. ---------------- Host: Victor Menasce email: podcast@victorjm.com

Today and every day this week we are looking at some aspect of food security and the major shifts that are putting enormous strain on our global food supply. We are already experiencing acute shortages all over the world. If you like Chicken, then don’t try to order it in a restaurant in Singapore. If you like Dijon mustard, don’t try to order it in France. On Monday’s show we talked about how dietary preferences have increased the demand for grain on a global basis as more and more people shift from plant based diets to consuming more animal protein. On Tuesday’s show we talk about how more and more farm land is being diverted from food production to growing for bio-fuels like Ethanol and biodiesel. On today’s show we talked about how energy markets are affecting the supply of fertilizer and how fertilizer use is down 5% so far this year which is expected to have an immediate 2% decrease in global food yields. That decrease in yield is in addition to the other factors that are already putting pressure on food supply. So we have not one, not two, but three factors negatively affecting our food supply. As we will learn on Thursday’s show, there’s more. ---------------- Host: Victor Menasce email: podcast@victorjm.com

Today and every day this week we are looking at some aspect of food security and the major shifts that are putting enormous strain on our global food supply. We are already experiencing acute shortages all over the world. If you like Chicken, then don’t try to order it in a restaurant in Singapore. If you like Dijon mustard, don’t try to order it in France. On Monday’s show we talked about how dietary preferences have increased the demand for grain on a global basis as more and more people shift from plant based diets to consuming more animal protein. Over the past 30 years, the carbon neutral movement has been pushing the oil industry to an increasing proportion of bio fuels. Every year, US farmers plant around 140,000 square miles of corn, 30% of which is used to produce ethanol. Between 1978 and 2018, the ethanol industry received a variety of subsidies totaling $86 billion dollars, more than both the solar and wind industry combined. Despite all this government support, ethanol is often a money losing proposition for farmers. It is also one of the least efficient ways to generate energy. If you covered an acre of land with solar panels instead of growing corn, you would win by a landslide. An acre of Solar panels produce 70 times more energy than an acre of ethanol from corn. But solar panels don’t need to occupy prime agricultural land. You can put solar panels in the desert where lettuce and tomatoes and wheat doesn’t grow. Sadly we’ve created a situation where we have taken prime agricultural land and donated it to the oil industry instead of using it to grow food.

On today’s show and every day this week we are talking about food. You might be wondering what food and real estate have to do with each other. Hopefully by the end of the week, I’ll connect the dots for you in what is an extremely important topic. Successful investing, just like in team sports requires a strong offence. But equally important and far less exciting is a strong defence. That conservative defensive posture requires an understanding of the risks. We are hearing about how the war in the Ukraine is leading to food shortages all over the world. But I’m here to tell you that the seeds of food shortages have been building long before the war in the Ukraine. In fact, the conditions have been building for many years. On today’s show and all of this week we are going to look at different aspects of why we have food shortages. If you go back to the 1980’s, our global population has been growing at about 1.5% per year. Our demand for agricultural grains has also been growing at about 1.5% per year roughly in line with global population growth. But since 2000, the global demand for grain has been growing at about 2.5% per year, faster than the population is growing. So the question is why? Are we all just eating more? Are we all just going to get fat? It turns out that in poor countries where per capita GDP is around $500 per year, the population largely subsists on a starch based diet consisting of rice and wheat based foods. But in the most developed countries, we find that diet is largely based on animal protein. When all of a sudden, instead of $500 per capita GDP, you're up at $2,000 per capita GDP and then a $5,000 per capita GDP, you begin to actually want to consume a lot more animal protein. There are only a few countries that have managed to break above the $2,000 per capita GDP. The good news is that we have made dramatic steps to erase poverty in a number of countries. Raising animal protein requires much more resources than growing plant based food. Cows for example consume 70% of the intake by foraging on grass that would not be suitable for human consumption. The remainder consists of grains. It takes 2.5 times the weight in grain to raise a single amount of meat. So as people in developing countries change their dietary preference to consuming more meat, the demand for grain is rising faster than the population. -------------------- Host: Victor Menasce email: podcast@victorjm.com

Jonathan Cattani got his start as a stock broker in Salt Lake City. That lead to eventually reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad and pivoting into the world of real estate investing. On today's show we're talking about how to talk to investors in today's environment given all of the uncertainty that has been injected into the environment since the end of the first quarter. To connect with Jonathan, visit investwithcattani.com ----------------- Host: Victor Menasce email: podcast@victorjm.com

Jorge Newbery is based in Chicago Illinois where he runs a series of businesses connected with distressed loans. You can connect with Jorge and learn more about their platform at prereo.com ----------------- Host: Victor Menasce email: podcast@victorjm.com