As we learned above, in most farmland investment situations, the farmland owner leases their land to tenant farmers, who usually live on and work the land. In addition, over 250,000 farms are so-called factory farms owned, rented, or co-opted by corporations. the Gates Foundation answers the top ten questions they received, and they admitted that they didnt think it was fair that their family had so much global influence. For related content and insights from industry experts, sign up for Successful Farming newsletters. Why Is Bill Gates Buying So Much Farmland? Some of it goes to surrounding states, across the border, or it ends up someplace else. Many people wonder why Bill Gates would make these moves with his investment portfolio. In reality, the idea that Bill Gates was single-handedly reinventing farming or designing cities of tomorrow was almost entirely speculation. 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. 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). Due climate change, dry seasons will be drier, and wet seasons will be more intense, and bring more flooding. Meanwhile, American agriculture today is being transformed as farmers employ new technologies and Big Data to help them manage their crops. How about Google Maps? From the beginning, Cascade Investments focused on blue chip defensive stocks, including Four Seasons, Berkshire Hathaway, Coca Cola, and more. 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. Contact Land Income today! In the same way you can invest into ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) in the stock market, there exist similar products for farmland called farmland REITs. 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. Called Leading Harvest, the organizations goal is to create a sustainability standard that can be implemented across the greatest swath of agricultural acreage. 1,539.24 acres of farmland in Champaign County for at least $16,959,677 between 2015 and 2019. Investors bought a record 18.4% of the homes purchased in the fourth quarter of 2021 three-quarters of which were single-family homes, according to real estate firm RedFin. 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. And the traditional ways of owning, operating and profiting from farmland will probably change now that Bill Gates is the largest private owner of farmland in the country. The groups founding members are expected to spearhead the rollout of the new standards on their own lands. Sales of more than a thousand acres are blue-moon events, OKeefe noted, so this one stood out. New seeds can reduce water use but some areas wont be able to farm as much.. He created the pledge in 2010 with his then-wife, Melinda French Gates, and his close friend and Berkshire Hathaway CEO, Warren Buffett. 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. (Through a spokesperson, the company declined to comment for this article.). Why Bill Gates is Buying Farmland. His idea, like many others, was to diversify his investments across different asset classes. And its headquarters was in you guessed it Monterey, Louisiana. 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. What do you think it could mean for the future of farming and food production? Purchasing your own farm outright means that you are not diversified across many farms; just 1. 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. When Ebbers owned this Louisiana farm, it was known as Angelina Plantation. Gates' achievement, according to the report, is that he's largest private owner of farmland in the US. In January this year, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced that its creating a nonprofit entity called Gates Ag One which will seek to speed up efforts to provide smallholder farmers in developing countries, many of whom are women, with access to the affordable tools and innovations they need to sustainably improve crop productivity and adapt to the effects of climate change.. Join our newsletter to stay up to date on the latest offers from Land Income. It has been very fulfilling for me and is my full time job," Gates continued. Late last year, Eric OKeefe was researching a mysterious recent purchase of 14,500 acres of prime Washington state farmland. You either had to directly buy the land, pony up millions to participate in a fund or purchase farmland via a REIT. So while the tech mogul certainly owns a large constellation of farms, its nowhere close to the majority nationwide. And the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation recently launched a new division known as Gates Ag One. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is well known for his philanthropy and his crusade against climate change. FILE - Bill Gates attends a discussion during the 'Munich Security Conference' in Munich, Germany, Friday, Feb. 18, 2022. Futures: at least 10 minute delayed. Why are you buying so much farmland? posed by one Reddit user,Gates indicated that seed science and biofuel development were major drivers of the acquisitions. Land Income 2021. The fund recently raised $1 billion, which it is pouring into companies developing hydrogen-fueled airplanes, zero-carbon building materials, and other green innovations. Contact Land Income today! FARGO, N.D. (AP) North Dakota's attorney general has found the sale of a couple thousand acres of prime farmland to a group tied to Bill Gates complies with a Depression-era law meant to . Over time, Gates sold personal stock in Microsoft and reinvested it through Cascade Investment. An aerial image of the Highway 565 address revealed a small metal-sided building off by itself in the woods. Does this investment say anything about the state of the. According to a press release by the Grand Forks council, Fufeng Group has chosen the town as its first US-based manufacturing facility after a 16-month comprehensive evaluation process, where they are expected to produce 25 million bushels of corn annually. According to some scientific estimates, there may be only 1.7 trillion barrels of oil in the world today. Farming is all of a sudden part of the solution and not just part of the problem, Sherrick adds. Gates is considered the largest individual private owner of farmland in the country with more than 280,000 acres across dozens of states, according to last years edition of the Land Report 100, an annual survey of the nations largest landowners. In 2020, Gates made headlines for becoming the largest private farmland owner in the U.S. 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 new coalition of farmland owners, operators and environmental groups is working to come up with verifiable standards for sustainable farming. A spokesperson for Cascade Investment a firm chaired and controlled by Bill Gates, and possibly what he was referring to as my investment group on Reddit declined to comment on specific land holdings at the time. Why is Bill Gates investing heavily in farmland? Cell ag experts weigh in, Vertical farming should be one instrument in a farmers toolbox, not the whole operation or the farmers competition, Technology is a means, not an end in farming: Key takeaways from Indoor Ag-Con 2023, Digitizing the supply chain drove investment increase in African agrifoodtech in 2022, It will be a year of bust-ups, roll-ups and M&A: VC predictions for agrifoodtech investment, Smoke & mirrors, not worth the extra cost: 50 US farmers speak out on carbon markets, Food & ag corporates prefer to engage with academia, research over startups, according to open innovation report. I have invested in these farms to make them more productive and create more jobs. Along with his wife Melinda Gates, Bill owns over 268,000 acres of farmland diversified in over 19 states. The moguls holdings include large tracts in Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, California, and about a dozen other states. In fact, Gates is the owner of over. Rating: False About this rating Context In April 2022, conspiracy theorists insinuated that billionaire Bill Gates. In 2018, when 100 Circles sold, it was even better. For investors who know what theyre doing, agricultural land offers financial stability in uncertain times. 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. By clicking Sign Up, you also agree to marketing emails from both Insider and Morning Brew; and you accept Insiders. Land Income. 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. Bill Gates does not own the majority of U.S. farmland. It aims to help poor farmers, especially in Africa and South Asia, get the tools, technologies, and resources they need to lift themselves out of poverty. If each acre can produce more food, thats good news for farmers. 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. Responding to the question, Hey Bill! Our exposure to Invitation Homes is owning its stock in mutual funds we manage, not buying houses w/ them,. Large investors usually work with expert advisors to help them acquire and manage their agricultural holdings. The agriculture sector is important. If youve been on the fence about getting into farmland, maybe now is the time to reconsider. In it, the four-time Academy Award winner plays an over-the-hill journalist who has a nosefor a story. The Gates Foundation isnt the entity utilizing the land, but rather just Bills family office. Think about how much Bill Gates would have lost if he hadn't diversified in 1999. Once upon a time, the business press dubbed the colorful entrepreneur the telecom cowboy. That was before the Edmonton native was put on trial for his role in what was, at the time, the largest corporate bankruptcy filing in U.S. history. Bill Gates owns about 400 acres of farmland outside of Malmo, Nebraska, that he rents to a local farmer. Its single largest acquisition of farmland came in 2017, when it paid $520 millionto purchase 61 properties from theCanada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB). In January 2021, Bill Gates became the largest owner of farmland in the United States. That means Gates, whose net worth is estimated at some $134 billion. There was no public announcement, and no notice in the business press. 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. Bill Gates is best-known for cofounding Microsoft, but he's also a major US landowner, having bought 275,000 acres of farmland. 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. In a former life, Angelina, the purchaser that paid $171 million for 100 Circles in 2018, was, in fact, Bernie Ebberss Angelina Plantation. About 97% of American farms are small and medium-sized family-owned operations. In 2017, Angelina Plantation changed hands one more time and became one of the principal farmland assets in the Gateses Cascade Investments portfolio. The Gates can create worlds biggest agrifoodtech testbed but theyll need to win over farmers first. The tech mogul, who is. Louisiana is the. holding off on buying and working with what I have. Bill Gates is an American technology pioneer. The project isnt yet funded. If the nations largest farmland owner can show that farming can be both sustainable and profitable, that will make a big difference. seed technologies, super-crops and overall farming efficiencies. Angelo Merendino for The New York Times. And from an agricultural perspective, the region surrounding Walla Walla and the Horse Heaven Hills has evolved into a commercial hub, complete with controlled atmosphere (CA) storage, state-of-the-art transportation infrastructure, and ready access to low-cost hydropower. Farmland as an investment offers low volatility. People want to know, Why does Bill Gates want all this land?. APS ASSESSMENT: False. I scanned the headline for the umpteenth time and then read and reread the pertinent details. We've received your submission. The cost is prohibitive for agricultural use of water. The endowment that funds the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is independently managed by a separate entity, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust, a spokesperson for Cascade Investment told The Post. 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CSC Leasing: Non-dilutive Funding for AgTech Startups, Americas Cultivation Corridor: We Grow AgTech Innovation, largest portfolio of private farmland in the US, replace their consumption of cattle-derived beef, How to implement digital agriculture, step-by-step, The Week in AgriFoodTech: Restaurant order app me&u bagged $30m, Remilk approved for Israeli markets, biomaterials bonanza, First Bite: Better Bite Ventures backs four early-stage APAC alt protein startups, from cauliflower ice cream to cultivated seafood. When it comes to alternative assets, there are a few options investors can look at such as real estate, fine art, foreign stocks, cryptocurrencies, even NFTs (verdict still out on them). It will help farmers in developing countries access Agri-Tech, improve farming tools, learn how to maximize yield better and better adapt to climate change. Since its IPO in 1985, Microsoft has seen continual success. We need a lot of technologies synthetic meat, energy storage, new ways of making building materials, he wrote. Theres a lot of little benefits that stack up when talking about farmland, but the biggest is likely the fact that farmland returns historically out performs most other investment vehicles, and is also comparatively the least volatile asset among the bunch. The nearby community of Buckeye has grown more than tenfold in the last 20 years. BlackRock also does not own the majority of the country's 80 million single-family homes. Gates is just using farmland to make Agri-Tech and financial investments. A 2018 purchase of 14,500 acres of prime eastern Washington farmland - which is. Gates who stepped down from day-to-day involvement with Microsoft in 2008 has long been looking for ways to help the worlds poorest and to address the planets environmental challenges. That makes him the largest landowner in the U.S. Stats show agriculture is a pretty good investment for. There wasnt a rock, let alone a pebble, or even a root to be seen in the soil. Currently, no one knows. Over the next five years, AgCoA acquired more than 100,000 acres in nine states. But why specifically North Dakota? In the past 20 years, the foundation has grown to hold over $48 billion. We have lots of water. It has been said that farmers can't afford to be pessimists. By Tim Gray. Officially, the general public doesnt know exactly what Bill Gates growing farmland estate is being used for. Ninety-six percent of everything produced in North Dakota leaves our state, said Goehring. 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, Gates longstanding interest in climate change. Many stories focused on Gates longstanding interest in climate change and sustainability and suggested those concerns might be driving the land purchases. Nebraska has the third-most Gates-owned farmland in the nation. Bill and Melinda released their latest initiative, Bill Gates Big Bet, where the Foundation states theyre betting on the major success of developing nations within the next 15 years, hoping to see more improvement than at any time in history. Youre not investing in a building that will decay over time, but the rich farmland itself. The acreage sits off Interstate 10, and it is poised to be accessible by Interstate 11, a proposed highway that would traverse 5 miles of the 40-square-mile holding. Bill Gates has bought enormous tracts of farmland. In emails, BlackRock spokesman Christopher Beattie told The Associated Press that the firm. 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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