Do whatever you want to with the land as the value increases. Someone else is owning that asset, whether it's rented equipment or land. The January 11 issue of The Land Report is worth reading. Social media users are falsely claiming that Gates owns the majority of U.S. farmland. One of the Gates' favorite vacation homes is in the Yellowstone Club in Big Sky, Montana. 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. When Bill Gates, or whatever other investment arm owns the land, a farmer still needs to farm it. 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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. Like wealth, land ownership is becoming concentrated into fewer and fewer hands, resulting in a greater push for monocultures and more intensive industrial farming techniques to generate greater returns. Wonderful Company cofounders Stewart and Lynda Resnick (net worth: $7.1 billion) ranked number three . One of the Gates favorite vacation homes is in the Yellowstone Club in Big Sky, Montana. Bill and Melinda bought this massive mansion in the Coachella Valley for $12.5 million in 1999. Weve been trained by experience, land acquisition courses, and hundreds of hours meeting with county assessors and clerks, zoning officials, realtors, and land investors. The agriculture sector is important, he wrote. 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. 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. The Microsoft co-founder faced several claims that he owned a majority of America's farmland earlier this year. if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'askbamland_com-leader-1','ezslot_8',107,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-askbamland_com-leader-1-0'); Even if you buy the land with the purpose of selling it at a later time when the area undergoes more development, you can still use the land in the meantime. Farmland CNBC 2.94M subscribers Subscribe 47K 4.5M views 1 year ago #CNBC Bill Gates made. Bill Gates is the largest private owner of American farmland, which is why so many people are wondering what he will use it for. 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. if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'askbamland_com-box-4','ezslot_4',104,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-askbamland_com-box-4-0'); Well, why would you think that a billionaire would want to own land? Land holds ample opportunities for growth and development, yet you may find that there is more land than there is competition. Gates is not the only billionaire on The Land Report 's list of top private farmland owners. Gates and his wife own 269,000 acres of farmland. Farmer Bill. If you said investment, then you are right. The acquisitions are held directly, as well as through Gates' personal investment entity, Cascade Investments. You may also be interested in why a billionaire wants land.if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'askbamland_com-medrectangle-3','ezslot_2',102,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-askbamland_com-medrectangle-3-0'); Bill Gates is one of the largest farmland owners in the United States. Land will likely never be a bad investment, as long as the land is healthy and properly located. AP'S ASSESSMENT: False. The land we all live on should not be the sole property of a few. Through his subsidiary Mt. Our era is dominated by the ultra-rich, the climate crisis and a burgeoning green capitalism. The opportunities are virtually endless. But why do a handful of people own so much land? Farmland can be an investment in several ways. We've received your submission. The United States is defined by the excesses of its ruling class. One answer might surprise you: While trying to track down who recently purchased 14,500 acres of choice farmland in Washington state's Columbia River Basin, researchers at The Land Report discovered the new owner was Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. Bill and Melindas main residenceand by far their most impressive homeis a massive compound in Medina, Washington nicknamed 'Xanadu 2.0' in a reference to, Undisclosed Sale Price (Listed for $8.9 Million). The tech mogul, who is the fourth richest person in the world with a net worth of $121billion, according to Forbes, has quietly built up a massive agriculture portfolio. The piece noted that the firm owns at least 100,000 acres of farmland in California, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana and other states or an area seven times bigger than Manhattan.. One of those farms, Stanley Farms, specialized in Vidalia onions, and another, Coggins Farms, focused on growing carrots. 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. But Gates, known for his philanthropic work solving some of the worlds most pressing public health and climate problems, has suggested that he does not treat his American farmland investments as part of his broader plans to save the planet. *According to figures compiled by The Land Report in 2019. In 2010 the Gates Foundation Trust invested about $23 million in Monsanto, the genetically modified seed and chemical company, though it sold its shares the next year following outcry from environmental groups. That is a big chunk of land. This map shows that area as a rectangle that can be dragged. Both companies were founded in 2012 with the same address as Cascade Investments in Kirkland, which later changed its mailing address to a Louisiana post office box assigned to Oak River Farms, another subsidiary of Cascade. He never did anything that different from before he got here and what other farmers were doing nearby.". With more productive seeds we can avoid deforestation and help Africa deal with the climate difficulty they already face. He is the author of the book Our History Is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance (Verso, 2019), In a pandemic, billionaires are richer than ever. While most people do not have the ability to buy hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland like Bill Gates, anybody can look at land as an investment opportunity to take advantage of. When fully developed the area could be home to 200,000 residents and be similar in size to the Phoenix suburb of Tempe, The Land Report said. APS ASSESSMENT: False. Gates, in an Ask Me Anything session on Reddit last year, said his investment group was behind the purchases, and suggested it was linked to seed and biofuel development. For five generations, the Reed Family has owned and operated the logging company Green Diamond Resource Co. Tuesday, the office of the Attorney General sent out a letter asking the Red River Trust to confirm how the company plans to use the land . In Nebraska where he owns 20,000 acres, it is used for soybeans. , an annual survey of the nations largest landowners. the latest American Housing Survey by the Census Bureau. About 40 percent of farmland is owned by seniors 65 or older, according to 2014 estimates by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, meaning more farmland is expected to come on the market soon. Weve never been one of the big institutional buyers of single family homes, BlackRock, single-family rentals nationwide. In every state where the Gateses own land, a tangled web of locally registered limited liability companies follow. U.S. Census Bureau data shows fewer than 20% of such properties are rentals, and the vast majority of those are owned by individual investors, not institutional investors like BlackRock. You can also look at local resources in your area to see where land is being bought or sold. Gates' purchase averaged $12,000 per acre. One of the largest plots of land owned by a subsidiary of the Gateses investment arm in Louisiana, Angelina Plantation, was previously owned by former WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers, who died last year, a month after being released from prison. The farmland was purchased through a constellation of companies that all link back to the couples investment group, Cascade Investments, based in Kirkland, Washington. Like other investment opportunities, you can find land for sale online. A 6,300-acre farm owned by Bill Gates in Madison County could become the site of one of the nation's largest solar farms. Its a hedging strategy, said Daniel Bigelow, a professor of agricultural economics at Montana State University, who previously served as a USDA research economist. A survey of the Gateses farmland holdings shows that a broad range of the vegetables that Americans eat can be traced back to his land and that some of this land has also been owned by other billionaires. Bill Gates currently owns over 268,000 acres of American farmland spread out over 19 states. That was a virus I got from Ted Turner.. 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 will not tell you that Bill Gates is your neighbor. In Washington, the Gateses own more than 14,000 acres of farmland that includes potato fields so massive that they are visible from space and some of which are processed into french fries for McDonalds. 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. 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. In six years that number has more than doubled. In total, Gates owns approximately 242,000 acres of farmland with assets totaling more than $690m. In 2014, he co-founded The Red Nation, an Indigenous resistance organization. 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). Farmland can be an investment in several ways. 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. It is unclear how cheap biofuels can be but if they are cheap it can solve the aviation and truck emissions.. You can read more about us, here. Starting in 2012, Gates investment firm began buying family farms in South Georgia. Mason notes that trying to draw hard lines between ones philanthropic work and ones investments does not work. The billionaire couple, in less than a. His firms largest farmland acquisition happened in 2017, when it acquired 61 farming properties from a Canadian investment firm to the tune of $500m. 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. 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 also is a shareholder in the plant-based protein companies Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods as well as the farming equipment manufacturer John Deere. Some of that land, including nearly 300 acres, was sold in 2019 to the California-based Grimmway Farms, the worlds largest carrot producer. You just have to keep it relatively clean, mow it, and pay property taxes. 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. Malone continued, the forestry part of it in the Northeast is a pretty good business, with very low return on capital, but very stable and leverageable. So why did the Land Report, Our History Is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance. Gates and his investment team own more than 240,000 acres, as reported by Eric O'Keefe, including 2,167 acres in Michigan. This means that there is not much to maintain on it unless you want to add your own buildings or other property. by Harvard Universitys Joint Center for Housing Studies. Last year, Cascade Investment made a second major investment in Arizona by acquiring more than 2,800 acres known as Spurlock Ranch in Buckeye for $25 million, that could be built out to include 8,500 homes. Lemmon Holdings, the billionaire spent $80 million to purchase. Kroenke is married to Ann Walkton Kroenke, an heiress to the Wal-Mart fortune. Bill Gates now owns almost 242,000 acres of the continguous USA. I mean, it is unlikely that one of the richest people in the world would invest in something that wasnt a good investment, right? Today, Bill Gates owns 242,000 acres of farmland in 19 states. Agriculture is also a key focus area for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the massive charity run by Gates and his wife. Except, it seems, when it comes to a private individual selling some land to iconic billionaire Bill Gates. of the richest people in the country, owns less than one percent of the nations total farmland. Bill Gates owns more private farmland in the US than anyone else, an analysis by The Land Report found.His 242,000 acres of farmland stretch across 18 states Bill Gates owns farmland in 18 states . Bill Gates was also an early investor in fake-meat companies aiming to combat the environmental harms of raising livestock by creating more convincing, plant-based alternatives. According to the Land Report 100 Research Team, that figure is currently more than twice that amount, which means Bill Gates, cofounder of Microsoft, has an alter ego: Farmer Bill, the guy who owns more farmland than anyone else in America. We loved familys outdoor adventures so much we started a land business just to help others buy their own land. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates finally revealed the reasons behind his massive purchase of farmland: seed science and biofuel development. The land that Bill Gates owns is used to grow soybeans, corn, cotton, and rice over 70,000 acres in northern Louisiana. You can email us at contact@askbamland.com. This number stems from last year's edition of . Xanadu 2.0 in Medina, Washington: Estimated $140-170 Million, Source: Steve Ringman / The Seattle Times. There farmers primarily grow soybeans, rice, corn and cotton. The opportunities are virtually endless. With the Washington state acreage and other additions to his portfolio, The Land Report estimates that Gates now owns at least 242,000 acres of American farmland. With more productive seeds we can avoid deforestation and help Africa deal with the climate difficulty they already face. What Is The Banking Process To Buy Raw Land, Price Of Agricultural Land In The Philippines. 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. Not only that, but it fits in with Gates values as a philanthropist because he can keep the farmland healthy for future generations. Bill Gates may no longer be the world's richest man, but he can claim a new title: America's farmland king. Farmers just aren't owning the assets anymore. If you are unsure where to start, you can also check country tax sales. These land holdings are separate from their previous investments in companies that support large-scale farming like Monsanto and the tractor manufacturer John Deere. He also owns three hotels in Dublin, Ireland, and a fourth in Limerick. Several Properties in Wellington, Florida: $27.2 Million (Total). In addition, the land is audited to meet sustainability standards including soil health and water management. In an interview with CNBC, Malone said that his biggest motivation for purchasing land was preservation and he said he hopes to buy more. Bill Gates, one of the most powerful billionaires in the world and co-founder of tech giant Microsoft, and wife Melinda are ending their 27-year marriage, the two tweeted in unison on Monday. While Gates is Americas biggest farmland owner, hes far from being the nations largest landowner in general. Last year, Bill and Melinda purchased a sprawling beachfront 6-bedroom, 4-bath home in Del Mar, Californiaoutside of San Diegofor $43 million. 23:06 GMT 15 Jan 2021 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. Bill Gates owns a lot of American farmland, but not the majority By PHILIP MARCELO May 2, 2022 CLAIM: Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates owns the majority of America's farmland and the investment firm BlackRock holds the majority of single family houses in the country. He is an assistant professor in the American studies department at the University of New Mexico. Bill Gates is in the money flow business, and farmland, as well as other land, can generate a lot of money. 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. An NBC News analysis also identified Gates as the largest farmland owner in the US. 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. This is where a country sells land when the owner becomes delinquent on their property taxes. Beach House in Del Mar, California: $43 Million. According to 2021 article from the Land Report, a magazine about land ownership, Gates owns approximately 242,000 . Bill Gates has invested in various high-profile commercial properties through his personal investment company, Cascade. Investment firms are making the argument farmlands will meet carbon-neutral targets for sustainable investment portfolios while anticipating an increase of agricultural productivity and revenue. Lots of articles on this are full of "4D chess" speculations about climate change blah blah, but the real reason for this seems to be very simple: "just to collect rent." According to O'Keefe, Gates isn't the only one making moves on the farmland market, especially as farm real estate values nationwide increased 7% from 2020 to $3,390 per acre. More surprising, however, was the fact that Bill and Melinda Gates own more private farmland . 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. They said farmland has been a popular investment for a long time because of its stability. 5. While land is a limited resource, there is still less competition for raw land than there is with residential and commercial real estate. retail, office buildings, hotels and apartment complexes, rather than single-family homes, but he declined to provide a breakdown. Right? That program ensures agriculture on the land is audited to meet standards, like soil health and water management, created by the nonprofit Leading Harvest, which counts one of the subsidiaries of Gates investment firm as a partner. The value depends on a lot of factors including location, type of land, acreage, supply, demand, and more. America's leading landowners added hundreds of thousands of acres to their holdings last year. When pressed during a book discussion on Reddit about why hes gobbling up so much farmland, Gates claimed, It is not connected to climate [change]. The decision, he said, came from his investment group. Cascade Investment, the firm making these acquisitions, is controlled by Gates. The billionaire knows best mentality detracts from the deep-seated realities of colonialism and white supremacy, and it ignores those who actually know best how to use and live with the land. 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. Behind Gates in terms of investment in farmland are the cofounders of the Wonderful Company, Stewart and Lynda Resnick, with 190,000 acres. , updated That's one of the many takeaways from the 2021 Land Report 100, which is compiled each year by Land Report magazine. BlackRock is sometimes confused w/ Blackstone, which owned Invitation Homes. That's basically the motivation there. Bill Gates owns more private farmland in the US than anyone else, an analysis by The Land Report found. But, As of February 2021, Gates has made headlines across the wor. 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. 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. 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 was quietly becoming the biggest private owner of farmland in the United States. You may have heard that Bill Gates owns a lot of land, but you may not know how much. 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. 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.