GMO boss warns of food crisis

“Resource squabbles and waves of food-induced migration will threaten global stability and global growth,” Jeremy Grantham says.

Global investors should have as much as 30 per cent of their portfolios exposed to natural resources, more than double the current market average, because of a burgeoning worldwide food crisis, GMO’s Jeremy Grantham says.

The droughts afflicting farmers in the US and the subsequent spike in food commodity prices are just forerunners to the climate-change fallout that will see many food-importing developing countries struggle to feed their populations, according to Grantham.

The co-founder and chief investment strategist at Boston-based asset management firm, Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo and Company (GMO), warned investors in his most recent quarterly letter that long-term investors should position their portfolios for a resource-scarce world and decades of rising commodity prices.