BlackRock also does not own the majority of the countrys 80 million single-family homes. In its review, the Midwest Center found that Baloo Enterprises LLC purchased: 1,926.3 acres of farmland in Douglas County for at least $19,694,096 between 2016 and 2019. And its headquarters was in you guessed it Monterey, Louisiana. 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 . In emails, BlackRock spokesman Christopher Beattie told The Associated Press that the firm. In a 2020 blog post, he wrote, "The rich should pay more than they currently do, and that includes Melinda and me.". 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. 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. So I took a look at Dun & Bradstreet. The Gates Foundation has focused their efforts on alleviating the aftermaths of climate change since its founding. Instead, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board revealed in the fine print of a quarterly statement that it had sold $520 million in U.S. farmland assets held by Agriculture Company of America. The small LLC had $171 million . In his annual Reddit AMA Wednesday, Gates was asked why he has bought so much farmland. Oct. 8, 2021. Gates has been asked about his farmland purchases before. Not surprisingly, one of Leading Harvests other inaugural members is a Cascade entity called Cottonwood Ag Management. 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. Theres also a proposal to build a new interstate linking Phoenix to Las Vegas. Even in an age of rapidly encroaching automation, it isn't, and never has been, easy being a farmer. In 2018, when 100 Circles sold, it was even better. 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. This half-billion-dollar figure corroborated the AgCoA acquisition, and the paper trail led directly to Cascade Investment LLC. 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. By Tim Gray. The biggest concern has been the Chinese companys proximity to a Grand Forks Air Force Base a United States military installation located 20 minutes down the road. 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. Join our newsletter to stay up to date on the latest offers from Land Income. Angelo Merendino for The New York Times. Learn more about fact-checking at AP. Gates' interest in farmland is still strong. It, too, was sold, on September 25, 2006, the day before Ebbers began serving his sentence at the Oakdale Federal Correctional Institution. I had gained this smidgen of geologic proficiency while researching our 2018 Farmland Deal of the Year, Weidert Farm, in neighboring Walla Walla County. In their 2018 annual letter, 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. 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. Bill Gates is best-known for cofounding Microsoft, but he's also a major US landowner, having bought 275,000 acres of farmland. About 60% of the farmers in Africa and Asia, almost 3 billion people, are poverty-stricken subsistence farmers. It isless than .1% of all US farmland because the ownership is so diverse. He's the new MacDonald: Bill Gates owns hundreds of thousands of acres across the United States including 242,000 acres of farmland making him the country's top agricultural landholder,. 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. Bill and Melinda Gates. Bill left most of his professional work at Microsoft at this time to work with Melinda and the foundation. So while the tech mogul certainly owns a large constellation of farms, its nowhere close to the majority nationwide. Its single largest acquisition of farmland came in 2017, when it paid $520 millionto purchase 61 properties from theCanada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB). 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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. One asked about the viability of seawater desalination to solve global water shortages. And thats where the land purchases come in. In the future, farmers will be paid for sustainability, says Sherrick, who sits on the groups board. There were 895.3 million acres of farmland in America in 2021, according to a 2022 reportfrom the Department of Agriculture. People want to know, Why does Bill Gates want all this land?. Ebbers subsequently pledged Douglas Lake as collateral for $400 million he ended up borrowing from WorldCom, and in 2003, WorldCom sold Douglas Lake to Kroenke Ranches. 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. Newsweek called him a sustainable agriculture champion., Those stories dovetailed with earlier reports about Gates large land acquisitions in Arizona. His magazine, The Land Report, tracks major land transactions and produces an annual list of the 100 biggest US landowners. Today, the Belmont tract remains mostly empty desert. That is the equivalent of almost 900 million acres of arable land used for industry in the country. Check out current deals on AcreTrader now! All Rights Reserved. According to press reports, Gates farmland empire is mostly managed by a Cascade subsidiary called Cottonwood Ag Management. I am quite confident that Eastwoods character, Steve Everett, would have picked up the stench from this setup a mile off: a $171 million acquisition by an LLC with two employees in a metal-sided building down a dirt road off the Bayou Teche? Some of the links on this site are affiliate links. Partnering with Monsanto to create these super seeds is also part of the plan. By the time it was sold to the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board in 2013, AgCoA ranked as one of the leading institutional owners of row-crop farmland in the United States. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, profits in the farming sector have increased by $23.9 billion in 2021. Cascade leases the majority of its land to farmers and is committed to the safety and sustainability of both its farmland and its people, the spokesperson for Cascade Investment said. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. 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 . Corporations own the other 3% and rent land or buy many of the crops owned by the 97%. Farming is all of a sudden part of the solution and not just part of the problem, Sherrick adds. Bill is now the biggest owner of farmland in 2022 a great hedge asset against rising inflation. 1,539.24 acres of farmland in Champaign County for at least $16,959,677 between 2015 and 2019. How can this inform our personal investment decisions? 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.. Gates was speaking to Redditors during an event marking the release of his new book, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster.. In it, the four-time Academy Award winner plays an over-the-hill journalist who has a nosefor a story. 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 addition, corporations and the rich are investing in farmland to deal with climate change and supply products to a hungry world with changing tastes.. Apply to GLOCALs 2023 program to help advance Latin American agrifoodtech, What is the role of biotech in an ethical food system? All https://www.barchart.com/solutions/ is provided by Barchart Solutions. BlackRock is sometimes confused w/ Blackstone, which owned Invitation Homes. The moguls holdings include large tracts in Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, California, and about a dozen other states. The group is called Leading Harvest, and the Gates-linked Cottonwood Ag is one of its founding members. Sign up for notifications from Insider! 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. The Gates Foundation isnt the entity utilizing the land, but rather just Bills family office. In fact, Gates is the owner of over 270,000 acres of farmland, which is worth over $700 million! New seeds can reduce water use but some areas wont be able to farm as much.. Prior to this in 1999, Bill sold off tons of Microsoft stock to diversify. These subsistence farmers can order equipment and seeds they need, paying what they can over a longer period of time. Yet he's hardly alone. Read more here. AcreTrader has carved out a niche for themselves that has led to rapid market dominance. How about Google Maps? 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. He had accumulated more than 269,000 acres of farmland across 18 states in less than a decade. 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 farmland just 40 miles away. By clicking Sign Up, you also agree to marketing emails from both Insider and Morning Brew; and you accept Insiders. While the global climate change initiative is trying to reduce total emissions by the year 2050, the year 2030 is also important. Why doesnt everyone just invest in farmland then? 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. 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. Rating: False About this rating Context In April 2022, conspiracy theorists insinuated that billionaire Bill Gates. Turns out that very same property had caught my eye way back when The Land Report was preparing to launch in 2006. AcreTrader is one of the most well-established farmland crowdfunding platforms out there. 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. Gates is in 49th spot but rising. Bill Gates is well-known for building Microsoft, but it's a lesser-known fact that he's also the biggest private landowner in the US. Valuations of equities (stocks) are at all time highs, similar to the dot-com bubble. Jeff Bezos is 25th and owns about 420,000 acres of farmland. 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. Land Income. 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. Goehring, however, reiterated the legality of owning farmland in the United States. The world is running out of oil. The most famous and by far wealthiest farmland owners in sparsely populated Concordia Parish are getting a divorce. Soon they came back with the answer: The Louisiana company was acting on behalf of Cascade Investment LLC, the secretive investment firm that manages most of the huge fortune belonging to Bill Gates. According to The Land Report, at the time, Gates had a total of 268,985 acres, almost all of which is active farmland. Why Is Bill Gates Buying So Much Farmland? In his Reddit AMA last year, one user said, "What do you plan to do with all the farmland you have purchased? Indian farmers tending to rice fields by hand. He is also the fourth richest man on planet Earth with a net worth of $125 billion. And the methods may cost more than the value of the yield. There was no public announcement, and no notice in the business press. Some of the wealthiest landowners including Jeff Bezos, John Malone, and Thomas Peterffy are buying up forests, ranches and farmlands across . It took a dozen years, but the ownership of that Louisiana farmland went from Bernie Ebbers to Bill Gates with a couple of stops in between. Climate change, rising automation, the ravages of climate change, virulent plant diseases, international politics and changing consumer tastes make it progressively difficult for family-owned farms to operate. One of the most telling moments in the field that summer came when a soil scientist by the name of Alan Busacca grabbed a shovel and stepped into a 10-foot trench that had been ripped open on the farm by a Caterpillar 336. Information is provided 'as is' and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice. Farmland Riches, LLC and the owners may have investments in companies represented on the AcreTrader platform. Cows may be given miracle vaccines to help them produce higher quality milk and meat. People are going to pay attention to what Bill is doing, Sherrick says. Given the size and cost of 100 Circles, both of those figures made no sense at all. People that live in that area, people that live around the state know about the situation, Goehring said in response, Theyre probably more angry because, first of all, they dont want Bill Gates as a neighbor, but the land was sold for less than what it would have been auctioned.. Why am I just learning about this NOW?. 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.. There is absolutely no connection between the Gate[s] North Dakota farmland investments and the Fufeng Group, a spokesperson for Cascade Investment, which oversees the investments of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust and Bill Gates, told The Post. 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. 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. Some of it goes to surrounding states, across the border, or it ends up someplace else. 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. FILE - Bill Gates attends a discussion during the 'Munich Security Conference' in Munich, Germany, Friday, Feb. 18, 2022. The firm is a shareholder in Dallas-based Invitation Homes, which owns nearly 80,000 single-family rentals nationwide. 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. So while the tech mogul certainly owns a large constellation of farms, its nowhere close to the majority nationwide. Our exposure to Invitation Homes is owning its stock in mutual funds we manage, not buying houses w/ them, BlackRock tweeted. And it did this so quietly one might even say it was done in secret. All investments involve risk and may result in loss. Something was missing. The Tri-City Herald reported that the purchaser was a Louisiana investor, a limited liability company associated with Angelina Agriculture of Monterey, Louisiana. Additionally, because the farmers don't have access to state-of-the-art agriculture tools or technology, they never maximize yield potential. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is well known for his philanthropy and his crusade against climate change. Nous, Yahoo, faisons partie de la famille de marques Yahoo. Bill Gates is about to change the way America farms The cofounder of Microsoft and his wife make an auspicious debut on the 2020 LAND REPORT 100, as America's largest private farmland owners. In the Reddit AMA, he also said he'll sell what he owns as money goes towards the foundation. However, Bill Gates investing in farmland may encourage others to begin viewing farmland as smart investing opportunities. In a former life, Angelina, the purchaser that paid $171 million for 100 Circles in 2018, was, in fact, Bernie Ebberss Angelina Plantation. 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. Gates co-founded Microsoft. According to the Tri-City Herald, a 14,500-acre swath of choice eastern Washington farmland in the Horse Heaven Hills of Benton County had just traded hands for almost $171 million. In his annual Reddit Ask Me Anything session on Wednesday, Gates was asked why he has made all of his farmland purchases. Any why now after years of massive success? 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. One main benefit to alt assets especially for those whore heavily invested in the stock market is you can diversify your overall investment portfolio outside the NYSE/NASDAQ. What is certain is that Gates won't be the last private citizen to do so.

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