4. 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. By Weve been trained by experience, land acquisition courses, and hundreds of hours meeting with county assessors and clerks, zoning officials, realtors, and land investors. But theyre far better known for their work in tech and in trying to save the climate. The largest. 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. But a Gates spokesperson said in a statement on Friday that the claim that hes bought the majority of the nations farmland is false, pointing to a U.S. Department of Agriculture report from February that showed there were more than 895 million total acres of farmland in the country last year. There are also growing trends revolving around the purchase of low acreage farmland and noncommercial farming. As more and more land becomes developed, less and less raw land is available, which potentially increases the value as demand remains the same or even increases. But Zehren of Cascade noted that the firm has been working in Florida and elsewhere to promote ecologically conscious agriculture and that it plans to continue to evaluate its farmland portfolio to improve its overall sustainability. The opportunities are virtually endless. 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. 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. In total, Bill and Melinda Gates have acquired land in more than a dozen states. In 2014, Cascade Investments combined both of those companies and the land into Generations Farms, which continued to grow vegetables. 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. Mason notes that trying to draw hard lines between ones philanthropic work and ones investments does not work. 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. BILL Gates' $80billion property empire now hangs in the balance after he and his wife of 27 years announced they are divorcing. retail, office buildings, hotels and apartment complexes, rather than single-family homes, but he declined to provide a breakdown. In 2018 Gates reportedly bought 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 from an insurance company that had paid $75million for it in 2010. Much of Turner's land is used as grazing land for over 50,000 head of buffalo the largest private herd of bison in the world. Renewable energy company Savion has an option to buy the property for what is being called Oak Run Solar Project, according to Madison County property records. Ownership of Angelina Plantation Farms, which sits among three wildlife areas in Monterey with a view of Bayou Cocodrie, and other property has been a . It can be sold as a property (or multiple properties), it can be used to produce things that people buy, or it can be rented out, like much of the farmland in the United States. 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'. Michelle, has two of its largest vineyards in that AVA: Canoe Ridge Vineyard and Columbia Crest Vineyard. There is only a certain amount of land available on earth. A Grimmway Farms employee moves a water pipe at one of their carrot farms in the Antelope Valley near Lancaster, Calif., in 2004. That was a virus I got from Ted Turner.. (Google Maps), Image: The building housing the offices of Cascade Investment in Kirkland, Wash., on May 22, 2021. He also purchased the 800-acre Bridlewood Farms in Florida. Gates' purchase averaged $12,000 per acre. Through his subsidiary Mt. It also allows you to keep a portion of the land for personal use so you do not have to give up your weekend home or relaxation property. The agency further found that over 50 percent of cropland is rented to farmers who dont own their land. 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. Data gathered by The Land Report and NBC News show that their land holdings range from 70,000 acres in north Louisiana, where their farmland grows soybeans, corn, cotton and rice, to 20,000 acres in Nebraska, where farmers grow soybeans. There are also ways to generate passive income on the land without selling it because you can lease the land or sell the mineral rights, among other methods. It was the highest priced land sale in the US that year. In 2009, the Gates' reportedly purchased a ranch in Wyoming that once belonged to Buffalo Bill Cody. This can be an affordable way to get started with your raw land investments. AP'S ASSESSMENT: False. BlackRock, meanwhile, is also not the owner of the majority of single family houses in the country. The relationship to land who owns it, who works it and who cares for it reflects obscene levels of inequality and legacies of colonialism and white supremacy in the United States, and also the world. But those working on projects with both investors and farmers to create ecologically sustainable farming methods and support diverse and disadvantaged farming communities say rethinking agriculture and working to avert a climate crisis go hand in hand. Bill Gates, the billionaire founder of Microsoft, has been revealed as the biggest private owner of farmland in the US, after buying up 242,000 acres in 18 states. The Gates Foundation said in a statement that its agriculture efforts do not extend to farming in the U.S. Since 2017 he reportedly holds a significant stake in 24,800 acres of land on the west side of Phoenix. In fact, Gates is the owner of over 270,000 acres of farmland, which is worth over $700 million! Bill Gates has never been a farmer. The land that Bill Gates owns is used to grow soybeans, corn, cotton, and rice over 70,000 acres in northern Louisiana. 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. The tech mogul, who is the. CNN founder Ted Turner owns 2 million acres of land largely in New Mexico, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Georgia. Bill Gates has secured legal approval for his North Dakota farmland purchase But the deal drew scrutiny under a 1932 anti-corporate farm ownership law Now state AG says the deal is legal, because . The billionaire couple, in less than a. 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. Someone else is owning that asset, whether it's rented equipment or land. (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). This means that you can find good deals that may be just the thing you are looking for. That means Gates, whose net worth is estimated at some $134 billion. The trend worries young farmers who cannot compete with the likes of Bill Gates when buying land, according to Holly Rippon-Butler, a farmer in upstate New York and the land campaigns director at the National Young Farmers Coalition. Raw land is not developed. Farmers just aren't owning the assets anymore. Where Does Bill Gates Own Farmland in the US. You may also be interested in why a billionaire wants land. (Stephen Osman / Los Angeles Times via AP file), The buildings of the 100 Circles Farm are at the center of this satellite image. 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. So while the tech mogul certainly owns a large constellation of farms, its nowhere close to the majority nationwide. buying an increasing share of the U.S. housing market. They own the soil where the potatoes in McDonalds french fries grow, the carrots from the worlds largest producer and the onions that Americans saut every night for dinner. Those animals, which are sacred to my people and were nearly hunted to extinction by settlers, are preserved today on nearly 200,000 acres of Turners ranchland within the boundaries of the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty territory in the western half of what is now the state of South Dakota, land that was once guaranteed by the US government to be a permanent home for Lakota people. We would love to talk to you! Buffalo Bill Cody's Ranch in Cody, Wyoming: Undisclosed Sale Price (Listed for $8.9 Million). Bill Gates may no longer be the world's richest man, but he can claim a new title: America's farmland king. 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. , updated CLAIM: Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates owns the majority of Americas farmland and the investment firm BlackRock holds the majority of single family houses in the country. Bill Gates is buying up the majority of American farmland and BlackRock is buying the majority of single family houses but Im supposed to believe the biggest threat to us is Elon Musk buying Twitter? read one representative tweet thats been liked or shared on the platform more than 250,000 times. Recently, an article in Land Report stated that Bill Gates owns more American farmland than anyone else. Lets take a look at some of the reasons that land, particularly raw land, can be a good investment for Bill Gates or anybody else, including you. Bill Gates' purchase of a large patch of land in North Dakota has sparked fury and conspiracy theories on social media after the Microsoft billionaire secured legal approval to purchase the. Real estate mogul and owner of the Los Angeles Rams, Stan Kroenke, owns 1.4 million acres of land in the United States, including a 124,000 acre ranch in Montana and additional land in Wyoming. 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. But they're just renting it. 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. The billionaire recently came under severe criticism from a fourth-generation farmer in South Georgia for his farmland ownership in the U.S. Will Harris, who owns a 152-year-old family farm named. Bill Gates uses farmland as investment vehicle, owning 269,000 acres of land. Much of Turner's land is used as grazing land for over 50,000 head of buffalo . A white man owns more farmland than my entire Native nation! Cascade Investments declined to comment on its interest in acquiring so much American farmland, but a spokesperson for the firm, Charles V. Zehren said it is very supportive of sustainable farming. He pointed out that in 2020, the acreage that Bill Gates firm owns was all enrolled in a sustainability program. That crown belongs to Liberty Media chairman John Malone, who has 2.2 million acres, according to The Land Report. Bill Gates had managed to purchase nearly 269,000 acres of land in more than 12 states in the US. The potential is endless. In six years that number has more than doubled. According to 2021 article from the Land Report, a magazine about land ownership, Gates owns approximately 242,000 . if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[250,250],'askbamland_com-large-mobile-banner-1','ezslot_7',108,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-askbamland_com-large-mobile-banner-1-0'); While the land that Bill Gates owns is already developed for farming and likely costs a ton of money, land can also be quite affordable. The acquisitions are held directly, as well as through Gates' personal investment entity, Cascade Investments. Though the Gateses are major owners of American farmland, the couples holdings only represent a fraction of the 283 million acres of farmland that is owned and rented out by nonfarmers. Bill Gates now owns the most farmland of anyone in the United States, according to a recent report from The Land Report . One of the Gates' favorite vacation homes is in the Yellowstone Club in Big Sky, Montana. 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. The opportunities are virtually endless. My investment group chose to do this, Bill Gates said on Reddit in March when asked about his farmland purchases while promoting his latest book, How to Avoid A Climate Disaster. It is not connected to climate. He did acknowledge that more productive farming techniques can help reduce deforestation in other parts of the world. Bill Gates acquired six parcels of land in Pembina County. The title for largest landholdings overall goes to US businessman John Malone, chairman of Liberty Media, who owns 2.2million acres. Like other investment opportunities, you can find land for sale online. 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. A 2018 purchase of 14,500 acres of prime eastern Washington farmland which is traditional Yakama territory for $171m helped him get that title. These billionaires have nothing to offer us in terms of saving the planet unless its our land back. They own the soil where the potatoes in McDonald's french fries grow, the carrots from the world's largest . Bill Gates' Land Ownership. After all, few can out-bid Bill Gates. ', In 2008, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced $306 million in grants designed to boost the yields and incomes of millions of small farmers in Africa as well as 'other parts of the developing world so they can lift themselves and their families out of hunger and poverty.'. Lemmon Holdings, the billionaire spent $80 million to purchase. Land holds ample opportunities for growth and development, yet you may find that there is more land than there is competition. And that its going to take big swaths of land, like what Bill Gates has taken, to do that, said Konda Mason, the founder and president of Jubilee Justice and Potlikker Capital, which funds and supports regenerative agriculture projects owned by people of color. Estate in Indian Wells, California: $12.5 Million. Back in January, US magazine The Land Report revealed that Bill and Melinda Gates have amassed the largest portfolio of private farmland in the US, comprising an estimated 242,000 acres. Bill and Melinda Gates, who recently announced they're getting divorced and are dividing their assets, are deeply invested in American agriculture. The project is in its early . The Gates Rancho Santa Fe estate was purchased in 2014 because of its horse stables and proximity to a local race horse track. The average person has nothing in common with mega-landowners like Bill Gates or Ted Turner. The farmland was purchased through a constellation of companies that all link back to the couples investment group, Cascade Investments, based in Kirkland, Washington.