His . Lorsque vous utilisez nos sites et applications, nous utilisons des, authentifier les utilisateurs, appliquer des mesures de scurit, empcher les spams et les abus; et. While Microsoft took a major hit in the tech crash of 2000, Bill Gates portfolio with Cascade would gain around 40% return in that same year. The billionaire tech mogul and philanthropist has quietly amassed nearly 270,000 acres of farmland across the country, but thats still a relatively small slice of the nations nearly 900 million total farm acres. Editor Eric O'Keefe noticed a massive purchase (14,500 acres) of prime farmland in Washington State made by an unknown Louisiana-based LLC with two just employees. In North Dakota, the Pembina and Walsh County farmland purchased by Red River Trust in 2021 is leased to the Campbell family which has a long history of operating these Pembina and Walsh County farmlands, which has continued under the ownership of Red River Trust.. It has also funded myriad research facilities and humanitarian operations, focusing on overcoming diseases, climate change, agricultural research, and health and nutrition in underdeveloped areas. That makes him the largest landowner in the U.S. Stats show agriculture is a pretty good investment for. And it did this so quietly one might even say it was done in secret. Gates, the billionaire tech mogul and philanthropist whose net worth was pegged by Bloomberg at $113 billion, has quietly amassed nearly 270,000 acres of farmland across the country, according. In a recent episode of 60 Minutes, Gates explained that zero-carbon energy sources like nuclear power are vital in reducing the emissions that warm the atmosphere. Meanwhile, American agriculture today is being transformed as farmers employ new technologies and Big Data to help them manage their crops. Air Force, 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved, Bill and Melinda Gates gush over new grandbaby in separate photos, Bill Gates says AI-powered ChatGPT as important as PC, internet, mobile phones, BillGatesbuys nearly $1B Heineken stake despite not being a big beer drinker, Bill Gates daughter living in $51M NYC home as she welcomes first baby, $13.5 million investment in 2,100 sprawling acres. Mr. Most likely, it is just one more asset in Gates vast portfolio, quietly appreciating in value while the billionaire himself remains at arms length. While private companies and corporations are increasing. Farming is all of a sudden part of the solution and not just part of the problem, Sherrick adds. However, Bill Gates investing in farmland may encourage others to begin viewing farmland as smart investing opportunities. 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 White Oak Pastures in Bluffton, Georgia, said he has concerns about Gates controlling . Foundation staff have no influence on Trust investment decisions, and no visibility into the Trusts investment strategies. Thanks for contacting us. This is especially helpful if, say, the stock market crashed, and you had a more aggressive stock portfolio (or any large stake in stock at all). Whether or not Gates personally directed Cottonwood Ag to get involved in the Leading Harvest project, the move makes both environmental and business sense. holding off on buying and working with what I have. The firm is a shareholder in Dallas-based Invitation Homes, which owns nearly 80,000 single-family rentals nationwide. BlackRock, meanwhile, is also not the owner of the majority of single family houses in the country. In January 2021, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launched Gates Ag One, a nonprofit charitable firm. According to Bruce Sherrick, a professor of agricultural economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, about 60 percent of row-crop farmland in the Midwest is leased. From the beginning, Cascade Investments focused on blue chip defensive stocks, including Four Seasons, Berkshire Hathaway, Coca Cola, and more. Based on Bill Gates budding friendship with Warren Buffett, Cascade adopted much of Buffets approach to investing: invest in good companies, and hold long term to see healthy returns. New technologies must be developed to give more sustenance to land that we farm to keep it sustainable. 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. Responding to the question, Hey Bill! The burgeoning metropolis of Monterey, population 462, rang a bell, but despite my best efforts, I couldnt connect the dots to anyone whom we had profiled in The Land Report or, for that matter, anyone who was on our watch list. And it tends to be negatively correlated against other investments, he adds: If the stock market is going down, the return on farmland is likely to be going up. That was the missing piece of the puzzle I had been searching for as I read the Tri-City Herald story. There will be incentives for things like using less water, fewer chemicals, and storing more carbon. Top 5 farms with the largest acreage in the U.S. How farmers can maximize the value of forestland, Northeastern Indiana farmland sells for $19,984 per acre. Many people wonder why Bill Gates would make these moves with his investment portfolio. It wasnt long before subreddit chains and conservative voices began inquiring whether Gates, 66, had any ties to the Chinese investment near Grand Forks. Gates, currently the sixth-richest person in the world, has a net worth of $111 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. It seems like Gates is getting ahead of the curve, relative to future Agri-Tech advances profitability, with his farmland investments. Contact Land Income today! The landowners can include investors like Gates. In the future, farmers will be paid for sustainability, says Sherrick, who sits on the groups board. All Rights Reserved. Over 39% of the income generated by farmers in 2021 will come from tens of billions in government subsidy payments.. In fact, Gates is the owner of over. Cascade Investment doubled down on Phoenix transitional land two years later when it made a second major investment by acquiring more than 2,800 acres known as Spurlock Ranch in Buckeye for $25 million. In January 2021, Bill Gates became the largest owner of farmland in the United States. However, Microsoft wasn't Bill Gates' only successful venture. , an annual survey of the nations largest landowners. More farmland investments may help struggling farms survive. According to public records, the billionaires portfolio includes shares in Warren Buffetts Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate, a Coca-Cola bottling company, and the tractor manufacturer Deere & Co., among other non-flashy investments. Warren E. Buffett acquired a 400-acre Nebraska farm in the '80s that . BlackRock also does not own the majority of the countrys 80 million single-family homes. Busacca was in his element: It was some of the richest farmland in the Lower 48. Perhaps history is repeating itself? Check out current deals on AcreTrader now! Bill Gates currently owns over 268,000 acres of American farmland spread out over 19 states. The nearby community of Buckeye has grown more than tenfold in the last 20 years. The Gates can create worlds biggest agrifoodtech testbed but theyll need to win over farmers first. In 2005, the former WorldCom CEO was convicted of securities fraud, conspiracy, and filing false reports that were instrumental in WorldComs $11 billion dollar accounting fraud. Farmland is what is known as an alternative asset an investment that can grow wealth outside of the stock market. Join our newsletter to stay up to date on the latest offers from Land Income. The problem is that it is expensive to desalinate it and move it to where it is needed, Gates wrote. The billionaire is one of the founders of the Giving Pledge, which asks the world's wealthiest people to give away most of their fortunes to charitable causes. We've received your submission. The company also took to Twitter to reject the false narrative. The fund recently raised $1 billion, which it is pouring into companies developing hydrogen-fueled airplanes, zero-carbon building materials, and other green innovations. Its the first time Gates has publicly commented on land purchases made by entities associated with him and his wife Melinda since they were named as the top private owners of US farmland by acreage earlier this year. While Gates appears . I do think all rich countries should move to 100% synthetic beef, he said. After AgCoA, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board acquired a second tranche of farmland assets when it paid $2.5 billion for a 40% stake in Glencore Agricultural Products in 2016. Bill Gates owns about 400 acres of farmland outside of Malmo, Nebraska, that he rents to a local farmer. Another main feature of the Big Bet is the implementation of the culmination of the Gates Foundations research: specialized GMO seeds for different crops that have been gene edited to be pest-proof, flood proof, disease proof, and climate change-resistant. Only sovereign wealth funds and institutional investors can stroke a check for tracts in that league, which is exactly what occurred on the sell side of the 100 Circles transaction: The seller was John Hancock Life Insurance, a multibillion-dollar asset manager with key holdings in all the major U.S. markets as well as Canada and Australia. And for those wondering why exactly Gates has taken a keen interest in investing in farmland across the country, look no farther than the profit margins. Featured in the agricultural side of their plan is a strategy for subsistence farmers and other small-acre farms in Africa and the developing world education, resources, and layaway payment plans which can be used through smartphones. In 2006, he helped launch TerraPower, a company developing a new type of compact, ultra-safe nuclear reactor. The same logic likely holds for Gates Arizona acquisitions. Rating: False About this rating Context In April 2022, conspiracy theorists insinuated that billionaire Bill Gates. According to press reports, Gates farmland empire is mostly managed by a Cascade subsidiary called Cottonwood Ag Management. The Land Report magazine reported in January that Bill and Melinda Gates have amassed the largest portfolio of private farmland in the U.S. A $171 million purchase of 14,500 acres of prime eastern Washington farmland in 2018 gave the power couple an estimated 242,000 acres of farmland, which is nearly the size of Hong Kong. Additionally, these small-scale, developing country farms serve local communities. About 97% of American farms are small and medium-sized family-owned operations. For related content and insights from industry experts, sign up for Successful Farming newsletters. At current valuations, its one of the nations best farmland opportunities. This story has been shared 240,292 times. His environmental bent also extends to farming. Contact Contact Land Income today. BlackRock also suggested it was being confused for the similarly-named investment management firm Blackstone, which until recently owned Invitation Homes. Along with his wife Melinda Gates, Bill owns over 268,000 acres of farmland diversified in over 19 states. According to The Arizona Republic, Belmont is projected to include up to 80,000 homes; 3,800 acres of industrial, office, and retail space; 3,400 acres of open space; and 470 acres for public schools. Turns out that very same property had caught my eye way back when The Land Report was preparing to launch in 2006. Think about how much Bill Gates would have lost if he hadn't diversified in 1999. There are over two million individual farms in the United States. Gate's hefty investment in American farmland may also be tied to his interests in developing super-crops. In his annual Reddit Ask Me Anything session on Wednesday, Gates was asked why he has made all of his farmland purchases. Investors bought a record 18.4% of the homes purchased in the fourth quarter of 2021 three-quarters of which were single-family homes. A spokesman for Cascade Investment declined to comment on any of the details associated with these transactions or the Gateses holdings, other than to say that Cascade is very supportive of sustainable farming. NOW WATCH: Bill Gates has a net worth of over $96 billion here's how he makes and spends his money, his close friend and Berkshire Hathaway CEO, Warren Buffett, he'll sell what he owns as money goes towards the foundation. 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. Of those rentals, less than a third are owned by non-individual investors, according to a 2022 report by Harvard Universitys Joint Center for Housing Studies. However, there are also countless farmland investing platforms gaining traction now too. Why Is Bill Gates Buying So Much Farmland? Larson makes money, and Mr. Gates gives it away., Larson and his team are famously tight-lipped. In 2017, Angelina Plantation changed hands one more time and became one of the principal farmland assets in the Gateses Cascade Investments portfolio. So while the tech mogul certainly owns a large constellation of farms, its nowhere close to the majority nationwide. Si vous ne souhaitez pas que nos partenaires et nousmmes utilisions des cookies et vos donnes personnelles pour ces motifs supplmentaires, cliquez sur Refuser tout. 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While he questioned if cell-cultured meat will ever be economical, he said that plant-based protein makers like Impossible FoodsandBeyond Meat have [a] quality road map and a cost road map that makes them totally competitive., How do you feel about the Gates owning so many of Americas farm acres? Gates personal farmland portfolio is managed by Michael Larson and Cascade Investment. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. 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. I dont think the poorest [] countries will be eating synthetic meat. Also, because youre investing in the land itself, your investment not only is quite resistant to depreciation, but also provides some solid tax benefits due to be land ownership. The Gates Foundation has focused their efforts on alleviating the aftermaths of climate change since its founding. He hopes plant-based substitutes will allow us to cut down on meat eating while still enjoying the taste of meat.. Please consult with your legal and financial advisors before investing and do not invest unless you are able to sustain the risk of loss of your entire investment. In his new book, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster, Gates explains why raising beef cattle causes more harmful emissions than other forms of agriculture. One asked about the viability of seawater desalination to solve global water shortages. Remember that metal-sided building down near the Bayou Teche? 1,539.24 acres of farmland in Champaign County for at least $16,959,677 between 2015 and 2019. Best Farmland Investing Platforms Non-Accredited, Best Canadian Farmland Investing Platforms. However, the Gates Foundation has been largely transparent at every level of their operations from their objectives, means, successes, and failures. In reality, the idea that Bill Gates was single-handedly reinventing farming or designing cities of tomorrow was almost entirely speculation. "Why are you buying up so much farmland, do you think this is a problem with billionaire wealth and how much you can disproportionally acquire?" So, what's the interest in farmland? There isn't some grand scheme involved - in fact all these decisions are made by a professional investment team.". But many farmers lease at least some of the land they cultivate. In fact, Gates is the owner of over 270,000 acres of farmland, which is worth over $700 million! At least thats what the developers partnered with Gates investment group have promised. Bill Gates is the largest private owner of American farmland, which is why so many people are wondering what he will use it for. Bill and Melinda Gates, who recently announced they're getting divorced and are dividing their assets, are deeply invested in American agriculture. Gates is just using farmland to make Agri-Tech and financial investments. We have lots of water. In the spring, the Fufeng Group, the largest privately-owned xanthan gum producer and flavor enhancer in China, dropped $2.6 million for farmland near Grand Forks a rural area that borders Minnesota and is about a 90-minute drive from the Canadian border. His portfolio is diversified, in other words. Many people wonder why Bill Gates would make these moves with his investment portfolio. Contact Land Income today! What do you think it could mean for the future of farming and food production? My investment group chose to do this. Not surprisingly, one of Leading Harvests other inaugural members is a Cascade entity called Cottonwood Ag Management. For investors who know what theyre doing, agricultural land offers financial stability in uncertain times. 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. The world is running out of oil. Almost 300,000 acres is a lot of land for one family or private individual to own, but it's still just a small part of the estimated 911 million acres of farmland in the US. With more productive seeds we can avoid deforestation and help Africa deal with the climate difficulty they already face. 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 is not connected to climate, he wrote. And why is Bill Gates the largest private owner of farmland in the United States? The project isnt yet funded. Called Leading Harvest, the organizations goal is to create a sustainability standard that can be implemented across the greatest swath of agricultural acreage. And Eastern Washington has some of the richest, most expensive farmland in the country. Farmlands will only become more automated in the future. Former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates owns a majority of America's farmland. In 1994, Bill Gates opened up his family office, Cascade Investment LLC, with trusted wealth manager Michael Larson. In addition, corporations and the rich are investing in farmland to deal with climate change and supply products to a hungry world with changing tastes.. Farmland Riches is sponsored by FarmTogether. And thats where the land purchases come in. Land Income. People are going to pay attention to what Bill is doing, Sherrick says. The billionaire couple, in less than a. Leading Harvest envisions a kind of sustainability seal of approval certifying that a given farm meets environmental standards. Why is Bill Gates investing heavily in farmland? For example, ethanol is a biofuel made from corn, barley, or sorghum and used as a gasoline alternative. At its listed headquarters 8318 Highway 565 Angelina Agriculture boasted two employees and reported annual revenues just north of $300,000. Their low fees and competitive returns set them apart from many of the other platforms out there. By divesting his personal wealth from his own thriving tech company, and diversifying into myriads of other non-tech based businesses, he was not only exceptionally protected against the tech crash of 2000, but made out like a bandit. Weve never been one of the big institutional buyers of single family homes, BlackRock said in response to one tweet. Ninety-six percent of everything produced in North Dakota leaves our state, said Goehring. Bill and Melinda Gates, who recently announced they're getting divorced and are dividing their assets, are deeply invested in American agriculture. Meanwhile, Chinese owners currently control more than 192,000 agricultural acres in the US, worth $1.9 billion, including land used for farming, ranching and forestry, the Agriculture Department told Politico last year. So I took a look at Dun & Bradstreet. 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. Over time, Gates sold personal stock in Microsoft and reinvested it through Cascade Investment. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Thanks for contacting us. A $13.5 million purchase of a North Dakota potato farm is drawing outrage and legal scrutiny. The program could be an economic boon for farmers. Thus, in Gates mind, its extremely important to help empower these developing peoples before that year comes to fruition. For now, though, all that smart city talk is more than a little premature. What special interest does Bill Gates have in farmland? (AP Photo/Michael Probst, File ), Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. Bill and Melinda Gates. But in total the Microsoft co-founder owns less than 1% of the nations total farmland. The billionaire tech mogul and philanthropist has quietly amassed nearly 270,000 acres of farmland across the country, but that's still a relatively small slice of the nation's nearly 900 million total farm acres. You cant just say, Ive got $30,000 saved up and I want to buy some farmland, Sherrick notes. This is part of a broader 269,000-acre land portfolio belonging to the couple and associated entities across 19 US states, with the largest holdings in Louisiana (69,071 acres), Arkansas (47,927 acres), and Arizona (25,750 acres). Learn more about fact-checking at AP. However, when you read between the lines with an objective and open mind, one can infer much. 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Not only was he no longer reliant on his own companys success for his own personal wealth, but he set himself up to make even bigger moves in the decades to come. Gates believes that subsistence farmers and impoverished peoples will be among the most affected by climate change. Although the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has no ties whatsoever to Cascade or its investments, it also has a farmland initiative: Gates Ag One, which has established its headquarters in the Greater St. Louis area. Or, have more control over the resources we all use and need. According to The Land Report, the Microsoft co-founder owns farmland across 18 states, with the largest holdings being in Louisiana (69,071 acres), Arkansas (47,927 acres) and Nebraska (20,588. Among the participants in the 13-member Sustainable Agriculture Working Group are Ceres Partners, Hancock Natural Resources Group, The Rohaytn Group, and UBS Farmland Investors. But the purchaser of record was a small, obscure company in Louisiana. BlackRock also does not own the majority of the country's 80 million single-family homes. Owning farmland is one of the most prudent financial investments to make now. In addition to farmland, the Gates' portfolio includes numerous public investments, the Gates Foundation, a major stake in the Four Seasons Hotel, and much more. There wasnt a rock, let alone a pebble, or even a root to be seen in the soil. The buyer, Red River Trust, is tied to Bill Gates . Bill Gates is best-known for cofounding Microsoft, but he's also a major US landowner, having bought 275,000 acres of farmland. But why specifically North Dakota? Due climate change, dry seasons will be drier, and wet seasons will be more intense, and bring more flooding. The magazine editor, Eric O'Keefe, was researching a purchase of 14,500 acres of prime Washington State farmland and found that the buyer was a small company in . These allow investors to get stared with as little as $10,000. So, if farmers do not improve farming methods, local communities suffer. Going forward, in line with the spirit of Leading Harvest, Cascade plans to continue to evaluate and implement new initiatives that will improve the overall sustainability of its farmland portfolio, the spokesperson revealed. With proper techniques, the carbon from decaying plant matter can be kept safely in the soil, rather than entering the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide. In an interviewwithMIT Technology Review last month, Gates argued that higher-income societies should completely replace their consumption of cattle-derived beef with synthetic alternatives. Cascade Investment began purchasing farmland in significant strides in 2013. The advancements in super-crop technology will create better agriculture yield, combat food insecurity and financially protect farmers in developing countries who are always one bad crop season away from financial ruin. To see all exchange delays and terms of use, please see https://www.barchart.com/solutions/terms. Gates also owned up to the various failures in their initiatives, and admitted that they try their best to leverage the expertise and wisdom from the community leaders present in the areas they aid. Ebbers was many things a dreamer, a liar, a swindler and he loved land. Climate change, inefficient farming practices, inclement weather, and plant disease are just a few of the reasons why farms sometimes fail to maximize their true seed yield potential. 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. And farmland investments are great additions to a diversified portfolio.. The firm is a shareholder in plant-based protein companiesBeyond MeatandImpossible Foods, as well as agricultural equipment makerJohn Deere. Well, as with everything in life, there is always a trade-off especially in finance. What is certain is that Gates won't be the last private citizen to do so. Bill Gates was right when he sold his own Microsoft stock to diversify through Cascade in 1994. All Rights Reserved. At buildout, the Belmont development will create a brand-new metropolis, one similar in size to the Phoenix suburb of Tempe, home to Arizona State University and almost 200,000 residents. And its headquarters was in you guessed it Monterey, Louisiana. Farmland Riches, LLC and the owners may have investments in companies represented on the AcreTrader platform. By using this website, you accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. 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. In addition, over 250,000 farms are so-called factory farms owned, rented, or co-opted by corporations. The soil profile and underlying silty loess are in a league of their own. Anyone who has ever studied the Columbia River Basin knows that the tillable acreage there is coveted ground, a geologic wonder. In 2017, Cascade Investment bought a significant stake in 24,800 acres of transitional land on the western edge of Phoenix, the most populous city in Arizona and the tenth-largest metropolitan area in the country. Its single largest acquisition of farmland came in 2017, when it paid $520 millionto purchase 61 properties from theCanada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB). Gate's private American farmlands are worth an estimated $690 million.. a Reddit user asked. Yet farmland assets arent the sole component of the Gateses landholdings. He said he did so to make the farms "more productive" and "create more jobs," adding that it was his investment team that made the decision. Meanwhile, a rep for Gates did highlight to The Post their Leading Harvest initiative, which requires farmland owners to work to continuously improve soil health, biodiversity and water, air and crop quality on their farms.. That can mean better yields with decreased use of fertilizers and pesticides.

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