The day before he went to prison, Ebbers sold Angelina for $32 million. He created the pledge in 2010 with his then-wife, Melinda French Gates, and his close friend and Berkshire Hathaway CEO, Warren Buffett. In early 2021, Bill Gates made headlines for becoming the largest private farmland owner in the U.S. The cost is prohibitive for agricultural use of water. "In terms of the very rich I think they should pay a lot more in taxes and they should give away their wealth over time. 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. That can mean better yields with decreased use of fertilizers and pesticides. 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. Well, as with everything in life, there is always a trade-off especially in finance. Essentially, by year 2030, the estimated results of what carbon emissions (and their, Eradicate major diseases such as polio, malaria, and HIV, Reduce child death by half across the developing countries in Africa, Educate and empower small-holder farmers through mobile banking, Featured in the agricultural side of their plan is a strategy for. Bill Gates is an American technology pioneer. The investments from both parties had locals raise their concerns to North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring on a July 6 in a town meeting. Ebbers was many things a dreamer, a liar, a swindler and he loved land. Farmland is what is known as an alternative asset an investment that can grow wealth outside of the stock market. 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. The story went dark on the buy side, however. For related content and insights from industry experts, sign up for Successful Farming newsletters. In it, the four-time Academy Award winner plays an over-the-hill journalist who has a nosefor a story. This is because of more intense seasons of drought and rain. That immediately set off alarm bells, OKeefe says. 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. The nearby community of Buckeye has grown more than tenfold in the last 20 years. 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. BlackRock, meanwhile, is also not the owner of the majority of single family houses in the country. That proposed superhighway would run across a 5-mile stretch of the Belmont property. People involved in the Gates financial empire stress that the familys philanthropic endeavors are kept separate from their investments and business ventures. This story has been shared 240,292 times. Agricultural technology advances of the future, or Agri-Tech, will create super productive seeds, sustainable biofuels and super crops. Pessimistic conspiracy theories abound, but Bill Gates, America's largest farmland owner, is born from non-salacious and pragmatic reasons. 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. In January 2021, Bill Gates became the largest owner of farmland in the United States. ", Gates responded at the time, "My investment team bought the farmland. With more productive seeds we can avoid deforestation and help Africa deal with the climate difficulty they already face. 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. James B. Meigs is the co-host of the How Do We Fix It? podcast and the former editor-in-chief of Popular Mechanics. Now, Bill Gates adds being the largest, private owner of American farmland to his career achievements. Download free guide with advice for beginners. One of my favorite Clint Eastwood movies is the 1999 mystery/thriller True Crime. But the details are murky, and there is no evidence that the billionaires farmland-buying spree is driven by anything more than a desire to have a well-diversified portfolio. In the past 20 years, the foundation has grown to hold over $48 billion. 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. Seed technology is the process of using technology, updated farming methods, and genetically modified seeds to optimize yield potential; maximize yield potential in less-than-ideal farming conditions; and make farming practices infinitely more cost-efficient.. The farm was subsequently sold to AgCoA, which was acquired by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. FILE - Bill Gates attends a discussion during the 'Munich Security Conference' in Munich, Germany, Friday, Feb. 18, 2022. 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. An aerial image of the Highway 565 address revealed a small metal-sided building off by itself in the woods. One asked about the viability of seawater desalination to solve global water shortages. OKeefe knew Gates had been acquiring farmland for years, mostly through various Cascade subsidiaries. Why am I just learning about this NOW?. Since 2016, Gates has led Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a venture-capital fund that invests in clean-technology startups. Especially when it comes to row crops like sweet corn and wheat, which were grown in rotation with potatoes on 100 Circles, which is the name of the property that changed hands. Bill Gates owns about 400 acres of farmland outside of Malmo, Nebraska, that he rents to a local farmer. The group is called Leading Harvest, and the Gates-linked Cottonwood Ag is one of its founding members. However, they told The Land Report that Cascade is very supportive of sustainable farming.. He was right when he predicted the COVID-19 epidemic in 2015. All Rights Reserved. In January 2021, Bill Gates became the largest owner of farmland in the United States. 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. Land Income 2021. The very next year, however, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board began shedding these very same farmland assets as quickly as it had acquired them. 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. That remains unclear. Officially, the general public doesnt know exactly what Bill Gates growing farmland estate is being used for. The arrangement is simple, The Wall Street Journal wrote in a 2014 profile. Larson sees to it that Gates wealth is sensibly, even conservatively, invested. Some of the biggest critics of Gates have deemed his philanthropy as a budding technocracy a tyranny of experts that both centralizes power into a private corporations interests. 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. According to press reports, Gates farmland empire is mostly managed by a Cascade subsidiary called Cottonwood Ag Management. Remember that metal-sided building down near the Bayou Teche? 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,. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Thanks for contacting us. 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. Given that Gates is the third-richest person in the world with an estimated net worth of $132 billion, he falls in behind Tesla founder Elon Musk and Amazons Jeff Bezos those money managers have their hands full. Ninety-six percent of everything produced in North Dakota leaves our state, said Goehring. Neither of these are a perfect option. Join our newsletter to stay up to date on the latest offers from Land Income. Meanwhile, American agriculture today is being transformed as farmers employ new technologies and Big Data to help them manage their crops. And the Belmont property is located along Interstate 10, the regions major east-west artery, making it an excellent location for Amazon-style warehouse complexes. Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, has an alter ego, OKeefe wrote: Farmer Bill, the guy who owns more farmland than anyone else in America., The Land Report scoop made headlines. For example, ethanol is a biofuel made from corn, barley, or sorghum and used as a gasoline alternative. Thats a ginormous deal, one that pencils out to almost $12,000 per acre for a whole lot of acres. Former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates owns a majority of America's farmland. 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. Partnering with Monsanto to create these super seeds is also part of the plan. Thats exactly what I thought. The soil profile and underlying silty loess are in a league of their own. With more productive seeds we can avoid deforestation and help Africa deal with the climate difficulty they already face. That makes him the largest landowner in the U.S. Stats show agriculture is a pretty good investment for. Click here to view current offerings on AcreTrader! Additionally, because the farmers don't have access to state-of-the-art agriculture tools or technology, they never maximize yield potential. The 2,100 acre potato farm adds to his massive portfolio of farm investments. Cows may be given miracle vaccines to help them produce higher quality milk and meat. ALT TEXT: Indian farmers tending to rice fields by hand. 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? Many people wonder why Bill Gates would make these moves with his investment portfolio. 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. That is the equivalent of almost 900 million acres of arable land used for industry in the country. Jeff Bezos is 25th and owns about 420,000 acres of farmland. For now, though, all that smart city talk is more than a little premature. In his Reddit AMA last year, one user said, "What do you plan to do with all the farmland you have purchased? 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. With all of this recent farmland accumulation, one might think Gates is using this land to research these gene edited super seeds. 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. It is unclear how cheap biofuels can be but if they are cheap it can solve the aviation and truck emissions.. And Eastern Washington has some of the richest, most expensive farmland in the country. Bill and Melinda Gates, who recently announced they're getting divorced and are dividing their assets, are deeply invested in American agriculture. (According to The Land Report, Gates owns about 27,000 acres of non-agricultural land, in addition to his farm holdings.). There are over two million individual farms in the United States. Bill Gates is America's biggest owner of private farmland, and his 242,000 acres could be split in his divorce. Bill Gates owns more private farmland in the US than anyone . The Americas Editor at Agri Investor, Janiec reported that the assets had been offered as a single block and that Microsoft founder Bill Gates is thought to be the buyer of CPPIBs farmland. Janiec stayed on the story, and the following year, he confirmed the parameters of sale when he reported the addition of 61 properties valued at approximately $500 million to the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries (NCREIF) U.S. THE FACTS: As Elon Musks bid to purchase Twitter 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. However, no one knows precisely when that will happen. 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. BlackRock also does not own the majority of the country's 80 million single-family homes. The Tri-City Herald reported that the purchaser was a Louisiana investor, a limited liability company associated with Angelina Agriculture of Monterey, Louisiana. We've received your submission. Bill Gates does not own the majority of U.S. farmland. a Reddit user asked. For example, seeds are being genetically designed to grow in near non-arable and hostile soil conditions.. This position in Microsoft was quickly funneled by Cascade Investment into this long term growth strategy. The Gates Foundation isnt the entity utilizing the land, but rather just Bills family office. 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. It isless than .1% of all US farmland because the ownership is so diverse. Cascade employees almost never speak to the press. Additionally, these small-scale, developing country farms serve local communities. Futures: at least 10 minute delayed. In emails, BlackRock spokesman Christopher Beattie told The Associated Press that the firm. But in total the Microsoft co-founder owns less than 1% of the nations total farmland. That means Gates, whose net worth is estimated at some $134 billion. I do think all rich countries should move to 100% synthetic beef, he said. However, when you read between the lines with an objective and open mind, one can infer much. Most of us imagine farmers tilling the soil that has been in their families for generations. Gates personal farmland portfolio is managed by Michael Larson and Cascade Investment. The billionaire couple, in less than a. 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. 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. BlackRock is sometimes confused w/ Blackstone, which owned Invitation Homes. When Ebbers owned this Louisiana farm, it was known as Angelina Plantation. 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. is not a registered broker-dealer, investment adviser, or crowdfunding portal under Regulation CF. Larson makes money, and Mr. Gates gives it away., Larson and his team are famously tight-lipped. He is also the fourth richest man on planet Earth with a net worth of $125 billion. 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. Owning farmland is one of the most prudent financial investments to make now. New seeds can reduce water use but some areas wont be able to farm as much.. Pretty pricey dirt, right? Gate's acquisition of so much American farmland may aid in manifesting technological improvement endeavors. 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. So while the tech mogul certainly owns a large constellation of farms, its nowhere close to the majority nationwide. It is unclear how cheap biofuels can be but if they are cheap it can solve the aviation and truck emissions.. Senior Airman Dakota C. LeGrand/U.S. Merged from the William H. Gates Foundation and the Gates Learning Foundation, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation quickly became the largest private foundation in history. Strike two. So, what's the interest in farmland? 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.. Janiecs sources said some of the AgCoA assets were quickly sold off, but according to the Land Report 100 Research Team, an estimated 242,000 acres of farmland remained. And they barely produce enough crops for food or profit. How about Google Maps? 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. 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.. It was near-perfect timing too, as 2000 would quickly see the infamous tech crash of dot com stocks. The Best North Dakota Farmland to Invest in There are specific regions within North Dakota that are better suited for growing certain commodities. Bill Gates is the largest private owner of American farmland, which is why so many people are wondering what he will use it for. Is this just a regular investment move, made on a large scale? 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. The new green economy will mean new opportunities for land owners, OKeefe believes. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is well known for his philanthropy and his crusade against climate change. 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. Apply to GLOCALs 2023 program to help advance Latin American agrifoodtech, What is the role of biotech in an ethical food system? Even in an age of rapidly encroaching automation, it isn't, and never has been, easy being a farmer. 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 . 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 . 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. "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?" of the richest people in the country, owns less than one percent of the nations total farmland. Get the latest news and research from AFN & AgFunder in your inbox. After losing his appeal in 2006, Ebbers spent most of the rest of his life in a federal prison before being granted compassionate release by a federal judge earlier this year. Larson also makes sure Gates keeps his eggs in a wide variety of baskets. Since his divorce, it is unclear how the assets were split up between the couple. These are a few of the reasons why savvy investors have been plowing millions of dollars into farmland on both the Oregon and the Washington sides of the Columbia River Gorge. We have lots of water. Farmland as an investment offers low volatility. So, if farmers do not improve farming methods, local communities suffer. Corporations own the other 3% and rent land or buy many of the crops owned by the 97%. Gates is a renowned software developer, international philanthropist, noted business magnate, and investor. The tech mogul, who is. Malone is #1 when it comes to owning the most corporate farmland in the United States. Gates responded: "I own less than 1/4000 of the farmland in the US. I dont think the poorest [] countries will be eating synthetic meat. In 2000, the new Gates foundation launched with Bill, Melinda, and Warren Buffet on the trustee board. 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. But the Microsoft tycoon is shooting down accusations that he has any ties to that company, The Post can exclusively confirm. However, there are also countless farmland investing platforms gaining traction now too. He hopes plant-based substitutes will allow us to cut down on meat eating while still enjoying the taste of meat.. Thanks for contacting us. Social media users are falsely claiming that Gates owns the majority of U.S. farmland. The agriculture sector is important, he wrote. While Gates appears . 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. (Although our researchers identified dozens of different entities that own the Gateses assets, Larson himself operates primarily through an entity called Cascade Investment LLC.). buying an increasing share of the U.S. housing market. What Returns Should You Expect From Farmland Investing? His . 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. The cofounder of Microsoft and his wife make an auspicious debut on the 2020 LAND REPORT 100, as Americas largest private farmland owners. Sales of more than a thousand acres are blue-moon events, OKeefe noted, so this one stood out. In 1994, Bill Gates opened up his family office, Cascade Investment LLC, with trusted wealth manager Michael Larson. Farmland investments overseen by Cascade are completely unrelated to the Foundations programs or efforts to advance agricultural development in Africa or anyplace else in the world.. Deals are highly vetted with around a 1% acceptance rate, You pick and choose what specific farms you want to invest in, Investors do not have access to a secondary market yet, so you should be familiar with the time horizon. Farmland Riches, LLC and the owners may have investments in companies represented on the AcreTrader platform. The problem is that it is expensive to desalinate it and move it to where it is needed, Gates wrote. People want to know, Why does Bill Gates want all this land?. 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. We need a lot of technologies synthetic meat, energy storage, new ways of making building materials, he wrote. We invest in the farms to raise productivity. 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. Not surprisingly, one of Leading Harvests other inaugural members is a Cascade entity called Cottonwood Ag Management. He had accumulated more than 269,000 acres of farmland across 18 states in less than a decade. All Rights Reserved. Weve never been one of the big institutional buyers of single family homes, BlackRock, single-family rentals nationwide. However, the development and implementation of new technologies to withdraw fossil fuels hidden deep in the earth are currently financially impractical. 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.
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