Gates portfolio comprises about 242,000 acres of farmland and nearly 27,000 acres of other land across 19 states, according to The Land Report, a magazine for land investors that tracks the nations biggest landowners. All that farming has led to large water withdrawals from Florida's aquifer system and requires fertilizer, which leaches through the ground into waterways, emptying nitrogen that has led to destructive algae blooms and severe loss of fish and marsh habitats. At this valuation, Gates likely paid close to $2 billion for the luxury-hotel business. Xanadu 2.0 in Medina, Washington: Estimated $140-170 Million, Source: Steve Ringman / The Seattle Times. Bill Gates owns more land than all of the entire city of New Why Bill Gates Is Buying Up U.S. Bill Gates may be trading his pocket protector for cowboy boots. But they're just renting it. These billionaires have nothing to offer us in terms of saving the planet unless its our land back. Farmland can be an investment in several ways. On Friday, a showdown between two of the largest agricultural landowners in the United Statesthe Church of Latter-Day Saints and Bill Gates ' wealth management firmcame . Gates and his investment team own more than 240,000 acres, as reported by Eric O'Keefe, including 2,167 acres in Michigan. 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. This means that you can find good deals that may be just the thing you are looking for. The extensive tax avoidance by these titans of industry will always far exceed their supposed charitable donations to the public. If the land is owned by the Cascade Investment Group or Cottonwood Ag Management it is likely that Bill Gates may be one of your neighbors. Bill Gates was quietly becoming the biggest private owner of farmland in the United States. The biggest shift in recent years from small to big farms was in the US. 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. Bill Gates has never been a farmer. There farmers primarily grow soybeans, rice, corn and cotton. Buffalo Bill Cody's Ranch in Cody, Wyoming: Undisclosed Sale Price (Listed for $8.9 Million). 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. 2,167 acres. Private Residence at the Yellowstone Club in Big Sky, Montana: Estimated $5-25 Million. This way, the land will remain productive and healthy, while also becoming a money-driving investment. A few years ago, Bill Gates has announced plans to build a smart city outside of Buckeye in Arizona. Since it works as an investment for him, it also includes the benefits of using land as an investment like he does. While Gates is Americas biggest farmland owner, hes far from being the nations largest landowner in general. Farmland can be an investment in several ways. 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. Gates owns almost 9,000 acres in Ohio, just over 9,000 acres in Indiana, nearly 18,000 in Illinois, but only 552 acres in Iowa. 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. Since then, it has been revealed that the two never signed a prenuptial agreement, instead opting for a separation agreement. The process of splitting the couples assets will be a mammoth task. His largest holding is in Louisiana (69,071 acres), followed by Arkansas (47,927 acres) and Arizona (25,750 acres). As of 2020, industry reports show he owned about 0.027% of U.S. farmland. Bill Gates may no longer be the world's richest man, but he can claim a new title: America's farmland king. Seems like there could be a lot to benefit more of their charities by selling some of this off. 4 That kind of hard work isnt what made him rich. than 85 million single-family homes in the country, and only around 15 million of those are rentals, Of those rentals, less than a third are owned by non-individual investors, according to. 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 Grimmway Farms employee moves a water pipe at one of their carrot farms in the Antelope Valley near Lancaster, Calif., in 2004. In 2014, he reportedly purchased more than 4,500 acres in Suwannee County, Florida, for nearly $28 million. Bill Gates has secured legal approval for the controversial purchase of thousands of acres of prime North Dakota farmland, after the deal drew fury from the state's residents. The 66,000-square-foot home overlooks Lake Washington and, although there is no exact estimate of the homes value currently, it had a total assessed value of $147.5 million on 2009 property tax documents. 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. NBC News also found that another 6,500 acres in north Florida are owned by yet another company, Suwannee River Terra, which was also started with an address in Kirkland and an email address from the Bill and Melinda Gates Investment Firm, which is now registered to the current chief counsel of Oak River Farms with a mailing address in Kansas, according to property records. Farmland CNBC 2.94M subscribers Subscribe 47K 4.5M views 1 year ago #CNBC Bill Gates made. 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. The 65-year-old's largest holdings include 69,071 acres in Louisiana, 47,927 acres in Arkansas,25,750 acres in Arizona, 20,588 acres in Nebraska and16,097 in Washington state. His first major purchase was Bell Ranch in New Mexico, a 290,100-acre plain saturated with mesas, rimrock canyons, pastures and a bell-shaped mountain. 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. One of the Gates favorite vacation homes is in the Yellowstone Club in Big Sky, Montana. He owns significantly more farmland than Minnesota's Offutt family and California's Resnick family, which each own 190,000 acres and rank second equal on the list. In every state where the Gateses own land, a tangled web of locally registered limited liability companies follow. Our exposure to Invitation Homes is owning its stock in mutual funds we manage, not buying houses w/ them,. *According to figures compiled by The Land Report in 2019. The Land Report revealed that Gates, who has a net worth of nearly $121 billion according to Forbes, has built up a massive farmland . 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. In January 2021, Bill Gates became the largest owner of farmland in the United States. The state's Republican Attorney General Drew Wrigley had inquired into the land sale, and on Wednesday issued a letter saying the transaction complied with an archaic anti-corporate [] The farmland was purchased through a constellation of companies that all link back to the couples investment group, Cascade Investments, based in Kirkland, Washington. The price makes this one of the most expensive home sales in this part of California ever. 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. When Bill Gates, or whatever other investment arm owns the land, a farmer still needs to farm it. There, on Gates parcels, an industrial farm grows potatoes for McDonalds french fries. These land holdings are separate from their previous investments in companies that support large-scale farming like Monsanto and the tractor manufacturer John Deere. In 2014, Cascade Investments combined both of those companies and the land into Generations Farms, which continued to grow vegetables. A 2018 purchase of 14,500 acres of prime eastern Washington farmland - which is traditional. 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. 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. You can also look at local resources in your area to see where land is being bought or sold. Estate in Indian Wells, California: $12.5 Million. An NBC News analysis also identified Gates as the largest farmland owner in the US. Stan Kroenke: Land area: 1.4 million acres. Cascade did not immediately respond to a phone message Friday, and the company declined to comment to The Land Report other than to say that Cascade is very supportive of sustainable farming, the outlet said. There is only a certain amount of land available on earth. They said farmland has been a popular investment for a long time because of its stability. 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. if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'askbamland_com-large-leaderboard-2','ezslot_5',106,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-askbamland_com-large-leaderboard-2-0'); While farmland, and land in general, will undergo economic factors and changes to demand, it is very likely to increase in value as the years roll by. The Associated Press reports that last week, billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates was cleared to purchase 2,100 acres of rural North Dakota farmland. But, As of February 2021, Gates has made headlines across the wor. Quarterman also serves as the Suwannee Riverkeeper and advocates for conservation of the intricate network of springs and rivers in the region, where water from the swamps of Georgia flow into Florida before they release into the Gulf of Mexico. He also owns three hotels in Dublin, Ireland, and a fourth in Limerick. buying an increasing share of the U.S. housing market. 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. They accounted for almost 1% of the agricultural land in the United States. 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. 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. In total he owns 268,984 acres of land of all types in 19 states, including a suburb up for development - as a so-called 'smart city' - outside Phoenix, Arizona. The principal danger of private farmland owners like Bill Gates is not their professed support of sustainable agriculture often found in philanthropic work its the monopolistic role they play in determining our food systems and land use patterns. In total, Malone owns roughly 2.2million acres of land and has a net worth of around $9.22billion, earning him the nickname the Cable Cowboy.. However, his largest land holdings are in Louisiana (69,071 acres), Arkansas (47,927 acres), Nebraska (20,588 acres . 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. So what is this guy planning? 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. With more productive seeds we can avoid deforestation and help Africa deal with the climate difficulty they already face. Recently, an article in Land Report stated that Bill Gates owns more American farmland than anyone else. Our inventory spans five western states. A 2018 purchase of 14,500 acres of prime eastern Washington farmland which is traditional Yakama territory for $171m helped him get that title. Bill Gates investment company, Cascade Investments, has invested in hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland in the last 10 years. 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. If you said investment, then you are right. He added: 'In addition, the states oldest winery, Chateau Ste. Some raw land may even be as affordable as a few thousand dollars, which can be an affordable and cost-effective investment strategy (or just a place to use for personal reasons). Gates is now America's largest private farmland owner, with hundreds of thousands of acres spanning across 19 U.S. states, according to the Land Report. Bill Gates uses farmland as investment vehicle, owning 269,000 acres of land. 5. That is a big chunk of land. In 2014, he co-founded The Red Nation, an Indigenous resistance organization. While the Gates own a lot of farmland, nonfarmers own 283 million acres of farmland throughout the U.S. if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'askbamland_com-medrectangle-4','ezslot_3',103,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-askbamland_com-medrectangle-4-0'); This article will go into detail about how much land Bill Gates owns and why he owns so much. 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. 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. 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.