Everybody has to eat. There are carnivores, herbivores, and locavores, but whatever diet a consumer chooses, it will always come at least partly from a farm.

That seemingly perpetual demand can inspire people to investigate agricultural businesses as an investment or entrepreneurial opportunity. And it can be a very profitable sector, but there are a few insiders’ points that would-be investors should understand.

To start off, not every farmer owns a farm, or at least not every acre that he or she farms. While the idyllic picture of the family farm sometimes holds true, the fact is that a large percentage of farmers are actually renting a big portion of the land they tend.…