If you work in US academic, research, medical, or cultural fields, your pension assets are likely managed by fund giant TIAA (formerly TIAA-CREF). The company touts itself as socially responsible but this carefully cultivated image is threatened by widespread evidence of environmental destruction and poor labor relations associated with TIAA global farmland investments. A campaign to call TIAA to task is underway, led by environmental and human rights groups from all over the world.

TIAA is among the one hundred largest corporations in the United States, serving over five million active and retired employees from more than sixteen thousand institutions. During the past decade, TIAA has become the largest global investor in farmland and agribusiness, accumulating over 1.6 million acres worldwide. In Brazil, TIAA is accused of evading national laws restricting foreign investments in farmland, a charge corroborated by both the New York Times and National Public Radio. In Guatemala, TIAA-linked investments are denounced as contributing to environmental destruction and human rights violations in palm oil operations according to a recent report in the New Yorker.

Investing in farmland has increasingly attracted pension fund managers who see land as a shrinking and often under-valued resource that is more dependable than volatile financial markets. TIAA manages farms for its own clients as well as for other pension fund managers, such as AP2 of Sweden, the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDP), and the British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (bcIMC), both of Canada. TIAA set up second global farmland fund in 2015, called TIAA-CREF Global Agriculture II, and added the New Mexico State Investment Council, Cummins UK Pension Plan Trustee, the UK’s Environment Agency Pension Fund, and the Greater Manchester Pension Fund of the United Kingdom to its existing investor pool.