
Rabobank, U.N. launch $1B fund to boost sustainable farming - kartikkumar
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-rabobank-sustainability/rabobank-u-n-launch-1-billion-fund-to-boost-sustainable-farming-idUSKBN1CL2Y2
======
spiderfarmer
The Rabobank is a bank that gave very stupid guidance to our own farmers here
in The Netherlands, its home country. When the milking quota came to an end,
it told dairy farmers to invest in more production, while everyone knew
production would rise anyway and prices would go down. At the time it would
make more sense to invest in things that could lower cost. Or, you know,
invest in growing products where demand is growing, like sustainable milk.

They were cocksure investing in more production was the way to go. If you came
to them with a business plan that foresaw in lower milk prices they would flat
out tell you you were wrong.

When the prices for milk came crashing down they acted like it was something
nobody could have foreseen, while it's basic economic theory.

Great goal. But I don't trust them.

------
apexalpha
My bank! the only Dutch bank that did not need any government support during
the crisis. They also don't have shareholders but are formed as a cooperative
structure. And I think they stopped handing out bonusses for their top
executives after the baking crisis.

They are pretty big on farming here in NL, and abroad.

They did have a scandal of Libor fraud rate. But they responded with a big
apology and the guy in charge resigning. The current chairman has a background
in Mechanical Engineering I think, in stead of some Wall Street / City guy.

Might not be perfect but they're a pretty decent organisation as far as I can
tell.

~~~
mcv
The Libor fraud was pretty serious. But it seems they've learned.

I'm their customer (I've got my mortgage there; they're the largest Dutch
mortgager), but they are also my customer: I'm currently working on a redesign
for their international website at rabobank.com, the first part of which just
went live this week as part of a big campaign to refocus on food and
agriculture (they started out as a bank for farmers), that this is probably
also part of.

It's pretty cool to finally see something (indirectly) related to my work
appear on HN.

~~~
dna_polymerase
Libor is fraud by design. Nobody learned anything from the scandal.

~~~
mcv
The Libor fraud was done by a fairly new London office that was created to
join in the fast high finance world in London, and that office operated mostly
outside the view of the central office in Netherland. From what I read, they
seem to have learned not to do that anymore. It was stupid and greedy and blew
up in their face.

