The Associated Press reports that last week, billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates was cleared to purchase 2,100 acres of rural North Dakota farmland. The Gates family currently [] He said that this is where large tracts of rich farmland is used to raise livestock and grow many of the vegetables that end up in grocery aisles up and down the East Coast. You can email us at contact@askbamland.com. - Bill and Melinda Gates are taking on the new title of the biggest farmland owners in the United States, with a good chunk of that ownership being in Arkansas. Its a hedging strategy, said Daniel Bigelow, a professor of agricultural economics at Montana State University, who previously served as a USDA research economist. So what is this guy planning? The opportunities are virtually endless. In fact it is so big that it is a little hard to conceptualize. The option expires Oct. 31, 2024. Billionaire owns 38-square miles of farmland in Illinois. Adjusted for inflation, average farm real estate values have generally risen since 1993, growing from less than $1,500 an acre in the mid-90s to over $3,000 an acre in 2020, according to the USDA. Bill Gates' $13.5 million investment in 2,100 sprawling acres of North Dakota land has raised questions as the purchase coincided with a controversial Chinese company buying 370 acres of. Nor does he put in the back-breaking labor humble people do to grow our food and who get far less praise for it. Bill Gates is the largest farmland owner in America: report - New York Post Why is Bill Gates buying up US farmland? - DW - 04/09/2021 Farmland CNBC 2.94M subscribers Subscribe 47K 4.5M views 1 year ago #CNBC Bill Gates made. This means that you can find good deals that may be just the thing you are looking for. Weve been trained by experience, land acquisition courses, and hundreds of hours meeting with county assessors and clerks, zoning officials, realtors, and land investors. For Indigenous caretakers, land use isnt premised on a return of investments; its about maintaining the land for the next generation, meeting the needs of the present, and a respect for the diversity of life. If you said investment, then you are right. He owns 242,000 acres, which is equivalent to the area of Fannin County GA. Land holds ample opportunities for growth and development, yet you may find that there is more land than there is competition. There farmers primarily grow soybeans, rice, corn and cotton. The Land Report revealed that Gates, who has a net worth of nearly $121 billion according to Forbes, has built up a massive farmland . THE FACTS: As Elon Musks bid to purchase Twitter has grabbed headlines in recent days, some prominent voices have taken to social media to claim that some other significant acquisitions by deep-pocketed individuals and corporations have largely flown under the radar. While those companies dont explicitly name Cascade Investments as the owner in their public records, they do share the address of Cascade in Kirkland, Washington, or the address of a Cascade subsidiary, list the names of Cascade employees who registered the companies and sometimes even email addresses from the Bill and Melinda Gates Investment Group. This can potentially earn you tons of money. Gates and his wife own 269,000 acres of farmland. Gates has been buying land like its going out of style. Not only is it usable by you, but land can be used for so many different things. Land will likely never be a bad investment, as long as the land is healthy and properly located. Housecall is the official blog of RISMedia, covering real estate news and information for agents, brokers and their clients. The Case for Bill Gates: Microsoft Corp co-founder is largely considered the biggest private owner of farmland in the U.S. with nearly 270,000 acres. Weve never been one of the big institutional buyers of single family homes, BlackRock said in response to one tweet. Bill Gates Called Out By Farmer For Secretly Buying Up US Farmland: 'I Exactly How Much Farm Land Does Bill Gates Own? It's More Than Any This is part of APs effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. It was the highest priced land sale in the US that year. Not only that, but it fits in with Gates values as a philanthropist because he can keep the farmland healthy for future generations. One answer might surprise you: While trying to track down who recently purchased 14,500 acres of choice farmland in Washington state's Columbia River Basin, researchers at The Land Report discovered the new owner was Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. Published: 18:36 ET, Dec 8 2022 Updated: 10:03 ET, Dec 9 2022 A MAP has revealed which billionaire owns the largest amount of land in the US - you'll be shocked to know that it isn't Bill Gates. BlackRock is sometimes confused w/ Blackstone, which owned Invitation Homes. Why aren't they giving more? Bill Gates is now America's biggest farmer - The Telegraph Financial titans like Prudential and Hancock have divisions specifically for investors looking to make money on farmland portfolios. That was a virus I got from Ted Turner.. Gates shares 95% of the ownership with Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. With more productive seeds we can avoid deforestation and help Africa deal with the climate difficulty they already face. According to Forbes, the worlds billionaires saw their wealth swell by $1.9tn in 2020, while more than 22 million US workers (mostly women) lost their jobs. He backed Impossible Foods, which relies on genetically modified soybeans, and also held shares of Beyond Meat through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Trust, though SEC filings show those shares were sold in 2019. We know that one of the best ways to sequester carbon is through the soil. Bill Gates Is America's Largest Private Owner of Farmland - Breitbart But Gates, known for his philanthropic work solving some of the worlds most pressing public health and climate problems, has suggested that he does not treat his American farmland investments as part of his broader plans to save the planet. But even with his big new agricultural holdings, Gates still doesn't rank in the Top 100 of private landowners overall in the U.S. - when considering owners of land of all types, not just agricultural. But, As of February 2021, Gates has made headlines across the wor. In 1994 Bill and Melinda Gates are said to have hired Michael Larson to help them diversify their property portfolio. Why Is Bill Gates Buying Farmland? You'll be Surprised - Land Income The billionaire couple, in less than a decade, have accumulated more than 269,000 acres of farmland across 18 states, more than the entire acreage of New York City. According to the Land Report 100 Research Team, that figure is currently more than twice that amount, which means Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, has an alter ego: Farmer Bill, the guy who owns more farmland than anyone else in America. Much of Turner's land is used as grazing land for over 50,000 head of buffalo . Which is where the Bill Gates' Land Ownership interactive map comes in. According to the Land Report in 2021, the Gateses had 242,000 acres of farmland, 1,234 acres or recreational land, and 25,750 acres of land that was in transition from farmland to residential and . After all, few can out-bid Bill Gates. Now Bill Gates appears to have acquired a slice of their tiny city, and locals near. The attraction that people have to investing in farmland is that it tends to be countercyclical to the stock market. Private Residence at the Yellowstone Club in Big Sky, Montana: Estimated $5-25 Million. (Ruth Fremson/The New York Times) (Ruth Fremson / The New York Times via Redux Pictures), John Quarterman on his farm in Lowndes County, Ga. (Matt Odom / for NBC News), John Quarterman stands by the Withlacoochee River. The billionaire couple, in less than a. Bill and Melinda bought this massive mansion in the Coachella Valley for $12.5 million in 1999. The 229-acre property was once home to Jenny Craig, founder of the Jenny Craig nutrition company, and was purchased by the Gates with hopes that it would one day be where their daughter Jennifer could train for her equestrian career. Can You Build A Wedding Venue On Residential Land? BlackRock also does not own the majority of the countrys 80 million single-family homes. CNN founder Ted Turner owns 2 million acres of land largely in New Mexico, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Georgia. Bill Gates found to be the largest farmland owner in the U.S - KARK Bill Gates' 20,000 acres in Nebraska help make him the top farmland owner in the U.S. Christopher Burbach Jan 24, 2021 Updated May 17, 2022 0 1 of 10 This cropland west of Malmo, Nebraska, is. Maps Mania: The United Gates of America - Blogger That doesnt mean that every piece of land is a good investment, but a significant amount of land will offer a high return on investment. Except, it seems, when it comes to a private individual selling some land to iconic billionaire Bill Gates. The billionaire knows best mentality detracts from the deep-seated realities of colonialism and white supremacy, and it ignores those who actually know best how to use and live with the land. To put that into perspective, thats nearly the size of Hong Kong and twice the acreage of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, where Im an enrolled member. Bill Gates, the fourth richest person in the world, currently owns 242,000 acres of farmland, making him the top private farmland owner in America, according to Forbes. Inside Bill Gates' $80BILLION property empire - The US Sun You can read more about us, here. Additionally, through his personal investment firm, Cascade, Bill Gates owns approximately half of the Four Season Holdings' hotel chain. Dr. Alan Busacca, professor emeritus at Washington State University, told Land Report at the time that the fertile land in the area was used for growing 'apples, cherries, carrots, dryland and irrigated wheat, and row and field crops'. If they purchased the rest of their farmland for similar prices, that would put the value of their 242,000 acres at almost $3 billion. Bill Gates, who already owns close to 270,000 acres of land in the U.S As more and more land gets developed, if you own land that is in the path of the plan, you could have buyers offering you big money to take hold of the property. In every state where the Gateses own land, a tangled web of locally registered limited liability companies follow. At this valuation, Gates likely paid close to $2 billion for the luxury-hotel business. Through Sierra Pacific, the family owns some 2 million acres in California and Washington. In May, Bill Gates also transferred about $850 million in shares of the agricultural machinery company John Deere to his wife after the two shared publicly their plans to divorce. When Quarterman first heard about Gates firm buying land in the area, he began digging through local property records, linking addresses and business records from registered owners to Kirkland-based companies, until he was able to piece together that the companies buying multiple tracts of land in the Suwannee River Basin were all a shell of a shell of a shell company investing for Bill Gates. NBC News independently confirmed that there were, in fact, shell companies tracing back to Gates firm that purchased 6,021 acres across four counties in Georgia. Learn more about fact-checking at AP. If youre looking at what this means for farmers on the ground looking to access land, theres significant competition from nonfarmers, and that really affects young farmers because it means that the price that theyre trying to compete with on the marketplace is driven and determined by people who are not dependent on a farming income, Rippon-Butler said. Since then, weve sold to dozens of people from ATV weekend warriors to camping enthusiasts to retired truck drivers. Bill and Melinda Gates, who recently announced theyre getting divorced and are dividing their assets, are deeply invested in American agriculture. These purchases are also a direct result of their daughters equestrian career hopes because of Wellingtons close proximity to the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center. The opportunities are virtually endless. Now you have a foundation where the mission on one side is to save the world and to do all these wonderful things surrounding climate, and on the other side theyre investing in the exact same things that are causing the harm that the mission side is trying to protect, Mason said. These shell companies have made it difficult to find out where and how much farmland the Gateses own even for local farmers, like John S. Quarterman, a farmer and landowner who grows okra, corn, squash and other vegetables in Lowndes County on the southern edge of Georgia. False. if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'askbamland_com-large-mobile-banner-2','ezslot_9',109,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-askbamland_com-large-mobile-banner-2-0'); Raw land can be a great way to generate passive income or even spur large profits in the long term (or even short term if you know what you are doing). Bill Gates acquired six parcels of land in Pembina County. Raw land is not developed. AP'S ASSESSMENT: False. Malone's 2.2 million acres are largely located in Maine, New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming and include profitable cattle ranches. Bill and Melinda bought this massive mansion in the Coachella Valley for $12.5 million in 1999. In Georgia and Florida, NBC News independently confirmed through research of property records that the Gateses investment firm owns more than 7,000 acres through two limited liability companies, Lakeland Sands and Lakeland Sands Florida, LLC. He never did anything that different from before he got here and what other farmers were doing nearby.". The map shows a 242,000 acre square situated over New York. The Microsoft co-founder acquired 14,500 acres of the fertile land in 2018, helping to make him the largest private farmland owner in the US, with total holdings of almost 250,000 acres,. Do whatever you want to with the land as the value increases. Leading Harvest requires farmland owners to work to continuously improve soil health, biodiversity, and water, air and crop quality on their farms as well as contribute positively to local communities, comply with regulations, and provide a safe and respectful working environment for employees, Zehren said. Single-family homes are priced between $5-25 million. Thats where the Gateses began buying land in 2013 through two limited liability corporations registered to an address in Kirkland by Derek Yurosek, then head of agriculture operations for Cascade. The sale was notable because it added to Gates' farmland holdings which includes large tracts of land in Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, California, and about a dozen other states. He now owns more farmland than my entire Native American nation. Bill Gates Land Grab - YouTube He is also the chairman and largest stakeholder of Liberty Media, possessing 28% of Discovery Communications, which was acquired by Scripps Network for $14.6billion. Now in its 15th edition, this landmark study tracks the diverse array of farmers, ranchers, forest owners, entrepreneurs, and investors who own at a minimum 243.75 square miles. There is a certain irony, of course, about Gates, 65, becoming the USA's biggest private owner of farmland, which American publication the Land Report recently declared him to be. While land is a limited resource, there is still less competition for raw land than there is with residential and commercial real estate. Wealth accumulation always goes hand-in-hand with exploitation and dispossession. The Microsoft co-founder is considered the largest private owner of farmland in the country with some 269,000 acres across dozens of states, according to last years edition of the Land Report 100, an annual survey of the nations largest landowners. And not all the renters are local. That makes Invitation Homes the largest operator of single-family rental homes in the country, but still represents a tiny fraction of all such homes. Malone owns several ranching and real estate businesses predominantly in Maine, New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming. This map shows that area as a rectangle that can be dragged. Black, Mexican, Asian, and Native people, of course, were categorically excluded from the benefits of a federal program that subsidized and protected generations of white wealth. They own the soil where the potatoes in McDonald's french fries grow, the carrots from the world's largest . He also reportedly owns about 16,000 acres in his home state of Washington, including a 14,500-acre tract in the Horse Heaven Hills region that was purchased for nearly $171 million. That program ensures agriculture on the land is audited to meet standards, like soil health and water management, created by the nonprofit Leading Harvest, which counts one of the subsidiaries of Gates investment firm as a partner. | Photo by Wikimedia Commons . There . The extensive tax avoidance by these titans of industry will always far exceed their supposed charitable donations to the public. The largest. "The agriculture sector is important. That means Gates, whose net worth is estimated at some $134 billion according to Forbes annual ranking of the richest people in the country, owns less than one percent of the nations total farmland. So why did the Land Report, Our History Is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance. Farm Gates - Ohio Ag Net | Ohio's Country Journal The firm is a shareholder in Dallas-based Invitation Homes, which owns nearly 80,000 single-family rentals nationwide. Small farmers and Indigenous people are more cautious with the use of land. Bill Gates is investing big in American farmland | Crosscut A Grimmway Farms employee moves a water pipe at one of their carrot farms in the Antelope Valley near Lancaster, Calif., in 2004. Recently, an article in Land Report stated that Bill Gates owns more American farmland than anyone else. The price makes this one of the most expensive home sales in this part of California ever. There, on Gates parcels, an industrial farm grows potatoes for McDonalds french fries. Gates' achievement, according to the report, is that he's largest private owner of farmland in the US. Lemmon Holdings, the billionaire spent $80 million to purchase. Behind Gates in terms of investment in farmland are the cofounders of the Wonderful Company, Stewart and Lynda Resnick, with 190,000 acres. In an interview with CNBC, Malone said that his biggest motivation for purchasing land was preservation and he said he hopes to buy more. It is unclear why Gates, better known as a self-confessed computing 'nerd', has invested in farmland so heavily, and details of the land are scarce,as revealed in The Land Report. Bill Gates owns a lot of American farmland, but not the majority By PHILIP MARCELO May 2, 2022 CLAIM: Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates owns the majority of America's farmland and the investment firm BlackRock holds the majority of single family houses in the country. Media billionaire Ted Turner has also invested in 2 million acres of land (much of it rangeland and prairie, rather than cropland) and earned the distinction of being the largest private owner of buffalo herds that roam the 200,000 acres of his private ranch, The Guardian reported. You just have to keep it relatively clean, mow it, and pay property taxes. The worlds richest 1% emit double the carbon of the poorest 50%, an 2020 Oxfam study found. Why should striking rail and postal workers get a big pay rise while our pay packets remain stagnant or worse? Another 5,500 acres was sold to Generation Land Georgia, a company that shares an address with Miami-based Optimum Agriculture, which bought Generations Farms in 2019. He owns 2m acres and has the worlds largest privately owned buffalo herd. Bill Gates may no longer be the worlds richest man, but he can claim a new title: Americas farmland king. Bill Gates had managed to purchase nearly 269,000 acres of land in more than 12 states in the US. The biggest chunks of Gates holdings are in Louisiana and Arkansas, where he owns 69,071 acres and 47,927 acres, respectively, the outlets research found. According to landreport.com, the Gates family has a total of 242,000 in farmland acreage in the United States. Someone else is building that equity on their back, said Johnathan Hladik, the policy director at the Center for Rural Affairs, who is also a farmer in Nebraska. Bill Gates owns more land than all of the entire city of New Why Bill Gates Is Buying Up U.S. Who owns the most land in America? Jeff Bezos and John Malone are among In fact, this also means that you may not even have to apply for a loan to start the investment! Bill Gates may no longer be the world's richest man, but he can claim a new title: America's farmland king. Bill Gates top private farmland owner in US. Bill and Melinda Gates, who recently announced they're getting divorced and are dividing their assets, are deeply invested in American agriculture. Farmers just aren't owning the assets anymore. He added: 'In addition, the states oldest winery, Chateau Ste. , updated In 2010 the Gates Foundation Trust invested about $23 million in Monsanto, the genetically modified seed and chemical company, though it sold its shares the next year following outcry from environmental groups. Members of the Stanley family now work for Generations. The piece noted that the firm owns at least 100,000 acres of farmland in California, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana and other states or an area seven times bigger than Manhattan.. McDonald's french fries, carrots, onions: all of the foods that come Bill Gates reveals reasons behind massive farmland purchases Our inventory spans five western states. Like other investment opportunities, you can find land for sale online. The 14,000 acres in Washington is used for potatoes and in Florida the land is used for carrots. Gates, in an Ask Me Anything session on Reddit last year, said his investment group was behind the purchases, and suggested it was linked to seed and biofuel development. The United States is defined by the excesses of its ruling class. Besides the enrollment of their landholdings in Leading Harvest, the Gates Foundation in 2020 also created an agricultural nonprofit, Gates Ag One, which focuses on bringing affordable solutions to small-scale farmers in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia to improve crop productivity. Why does Bill Gates own so much farmland? - FoodIndustry.Com The Microsoft co-founder has reportedly purchased an $8.9 million Wyoming ranch that was once the stomping grounds of Buffalo Bill . As the population grows in large cities, some people will inevitably want to move to the country. Why Bill Gates is the largest private farmland owner in the - Vox Starting in 2012, Gates investment firm began buying family farms in South Georgia. In 2009, the Gates' reportedly purchased a ranch in Wyoming that once belonged to Buffalo Bill Cody. That crown belongs to Liberty Media chairman John Malone, who has 2.2 million acres, according to The Land Report. Bill Gates Called Out By Farmer For Secretly Buying Up US Farmland: 'I (Matt Odom / for NBC News), Image: John Quarterman (Matt Odom / for NBC News), Image: Philanthropist and co-founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates and his wife Melinda listen to the speech by French President Francois Hollande, prior to being awarded Commanders of the Legion of Honor at the Elysee Palace in Paris (Kamil Zihnioglu / Pool via Reuters), American businessman and philanthropist (born 1955). The biggest shift in recent years from small to big farms was in the US. Renewable energy company Savion has an option to buy the property for what . The land that Bill Gates owns is used to grow soybeans, corn, cotton, and rice over 70,000 acres in northern Louisiana. The Gates Foundation said in a statement that its agriculture efforts do not extend to farming in the U.S. Gates shares ownership with Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talalthe two purchased the chain in 2007 for $3.8 billion. If not for climate, then why is Bill Gates buying so much farmland? Farmland in those parts is valuable, commanding prices between $10,000 and $15,000 per acre, far beyond the state average of about $2,000. You may also be interested in why a billionaire wants land. Bill Gates has never been a farmer. Farmland can be an investment in several ways. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. Bill Gates owns massive parcels of farmland. It's not part of his plans More surprising, however, was the fact that Bill and Melinda Gates own more private farmland . Although the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is not directly connected with Cascade or its investments, it also has a farmland initiative: Gates Ag One, established in the Greater St. Louis area, with a mission to help 'smallholder farmers adapt to climate change and make food production in low- and middle-income countries more productive, resilient, and sustainable. The 13,573-square-foot home has six bedrooms, 11 bedrooms and more luxury features than you can count. Bill Gates currently owns over 268,000 acres of American farmland spread out over 19 states. Bill Gates' 20,000 acres in Nebraska help make him the top farmland That kind of hard work isnt what made him rich. Why Is Bill Gates Buying So Much Farmland? - Farmland Riches That title goes to John Malone, the former CEO of Tele-Communications Inc, which was purchased by AT&T Inc in 1999 for more than $50billion. The Microsoft co-founder faced several claims that he owned a majority of Americas farmland earlier this year. Xanadu 2.0 in Medina, Washington: Estimated $140-170 Million, Source: Steve Ringman / The Seattle Times. This means that you can find good deals that may be just the thing you are looking for. When fully developed the area could be home to 200,000 residents and be similar in size to the Phoenix suburb of Tempe, The Land Report said. Through his subsidiary Mt. That makes Invitation Homes the, largest operator of single-family rental homes in the country, but still represents, BlackRock also suggested it was being confused for the similarly-named i. nvestment management firm Blackstone, which until recently owned Invitation Homes. 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