Pessimistic conspiracy theories abound, but Bill Gates, America's largest farmland owner, is born from non-salacious and pragmatic reasons. I have invested in these farms to make them more productive and create more jobs. Prior to this in 1999, Bill sold off tons of Microsoft stock to diversify. Whether or not Gates personally directed Cottonwood Ag to get involved in the Leading Harvest project, the move makes both environmental and business sense. 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. And its headquarters was in you guessed it Monterey, Louisiana. Most notably, in 2017, the Gates-affiliated Mt. According to press reports, Gates farmland empire is mostly managed by a Cascade subsidiary called Cottonwood Ag Management. I readily admit forgetting where and when I first caught wind of it, but the moment I read that Tri-City Herald story, I knew the ending definitely needed a rewrite. His portfolio is diversified, in other words. Gates is just using farmland to make Agri-Tech and financial investments. One must be an optimist to be an American farmer. 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. 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). To better understand these questions, it's helpful to review Bill Gates' financial decision through the years, especially as it relates to Microsoft, Cascade Investments, and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. 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. 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. We have lots of water. 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. As more investors look to buy land, those who got in earlier are poised to benefit from the appreciation of the land value. None of the information contained on this website is a recommendation to invest in any securities. An aerial image of the Highway 565 address revealed a small metal-sided building off by itself in the woods. People want to know, Why does Bill Gates want all this land? , But hyper-wealthy people like Gates dont make every decision personally, OKeefe notes. 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. from February that showed there were more than 895 million total acres of farmland in the country last year. In fact, Gates is the owner of over 270,000 acres of farmland, which is worth over $700 million! Thanks for contacting us. However, Microsoft wasn't Bill Gates' only successful venture. The landowners can include investors like Gates. Weve never been one of the big institutional buyers of single family homes, BlackRock said in response to one tweet. Investors bought a record 18.4% of the homes purchased in the fourth quarter of 2021 three-quarters of which were single-family homes. His environmental bent also extends to farming. According to some scientific estimates, there may be only 1.7 trillion barrels of oil in the world today. More often than not, farmland sales involve hundreds of acres. There wasnt a rock, let alone a pebble, or even a root to be seen in the soil. (Through a spokesperson, the company declined to comment for this article.). It is unclear how cheap biofuels can be but if they are cheap it can solve the aviation and truck emissions.. Farmland as an investment offers low volatility. According to a 2014 profile of Larson in the Wall Street Journal, these investments include a substantial stake in AutoNation, hospitality interests such as the Charles Hotel in Cambridge and the Four Seasons in San Francisco, and at least 100,000 acres of farmland in California, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, and other states . 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. Without innovation, we will not solve climate change, Gates said. The typical farmer may plant anywhere between 75,000 to 250,000 seeds per acre to maximize as much seed yield advantage as possible. Farmland REITs have a high degree of correlation with the overall stock market, and returns tend to be lower than less liquid farmland investments. Given the size and cost of 100 Circles, both of those figures made no sense at all. Since 2016, Gates has led Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a venture-capital fund that invests in clean-technology startups. 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. 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. This high-tech metropolis could be both a breeding and testing ground for futuristic technologies.. 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. When Ebbers owned this Louisiana farm, it was known as Angelina Plantation. While Gates appears . The Gates can create worlds biggest agrifoodtech testbed but theyll need to win over farmers first. For related content and insights from industry experts, sign up for Successful Farming newsletters. 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. mesurer votre utilisation de nos sites et applications. 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. 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. 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. Learn more about fact-checking at AP. In emails, BlackRock spokesman Christopher Beattie told The Associated Press that the firm. It, too, was sold, on September 25, 2006, the day before Ebbers began serving his sentence at the Oakdale Federal Correctional Institution. 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. Since his divorce, it is unclear how the assets were split up between the couple. I scanned the headline for the umpteenth time and then read and reread the pertinent details. Gates personal farmland portfolio is managed by Michael Larson and Cascade Investment. 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. 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. Farmlands will only become more automated in the future. Since its IPO in 1985, Microsoft has seen continual success. Pretty pricey dirt, right? He hopes plant-based substitutes will allow us to cut down on meat eating while still enjoying the taste of meat.. However, the Gates Foundation has been largely transparent at every level of their operations from their objectives, means, successes, and failures. Many people wonder why Bill Gates would make these moves with his investment portfolio. Does the name Bernie Ebbers ring a bell? Dusky layers of silt and sand towered over the 6-foot-tall retired Washington State professor. 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. Over 39% of the income generated by farmers in 2021 will come from tens of billions in government subsidy payments.. Leading Harvest envisions a kind of sustainability seal of approval certifying that a given farm meets environmental standards. Late last year, Eric OKeefe was researching a mysterious recent purchase of 14,500 acres of prime Washington state farmland. This private U.S. farmland REIT was a joint venture between Duquesne Capital Management and Goldman Sachs that launched in 2007. And farmland investments are great additions to a diversified portfolio.. (AP Photo/Michael Probst, File ), Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. Some of the wealthiest landowners including Jeff Bezos, John Malone, and Thomas Peterffy are buying up forests, ranches and farmlands across . Most likely, it is just one more asset in Gates vast portfolio, quietly appreciating in value while the billionaire himself remains at arms length. of the richest people in the country, owns less than one percent of the nations total 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. As of 2020, industry reports show he owned about 0.027% of U.S. farmland. LITTLE ROCK, Ark. Gate's hefty investment in American farmland may also be tied to his interests in developing super-crops. All https://www.barchart.com/solutions/ is provided by Barchart Solutions. US generated 91m tons of surplus food in 2021, representing 6% of all GHG emissions. Ebbers was many things a dreamer, a liar, a swindler and he loved land. Future crops may be designed to grow better in droughts, heatwaves and withstand disease. 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. 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. The agriculture sector is important. It has been very fulfilling for me and is my full time job," Gates continued. There was no public announcement, and no notice in the business press. 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. APS ASSESSMENT: False. While Bill Gates is technically the largest farmland owner in the United States, he isn't. Responding to the question, Hey Bill! People involved in the Gates financial empire stress that the familys philanthropic endeavors are kept separate from their investments and business ventures. Super-crops are genetically modified seeds, crops and livestock to maximize as much yield as possible. One of my favorite Clint Eastwood movies is the 1999 mystery/thriller True Crime. 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. Bill Gates has started laying out his plans for creating a smart city in Phoenix, Arizona, science-news outlet Futurism wrote. Gates believes that subsistence farmers and impoverished peoples will be among the most affected by climate change. 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. Why Bill Gates is Buying Farmland. In reality, the idea that Bill Gates was single-handedly reinventing farming or designing cities of tomorrow was almost entirely speculation. Over time, Gates sold personal stock in Microsoft and. In January 2021, Bill Gates became the largest owner of farmland in the United States. These states include: As previously mentioned, Bill Gates investment in farming may precipitate future advancements in Agri-Tech and traditional farming practices, i.e. 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. In January 2021, Bill Gates became the largest owner of farmland in the United States. The plant-based protein craze will be worth $23.4 billion by 2027. It was his last deal as a free man. 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. At its listed headquarters 8318 Highway 565 Angelina Agriculture boasted two employees and reported annual revenues just north of $300,000. We invest in the farms to raise productivity. is not a registered broker-dealer, investment adviser, or crowdfunding portal under Regulation CF. A $13.5 million purchase of a North Dakota potato farm is drawing outrage and legal scrutiny. With more productive seeds we can avoid deforestation and help Africa deal with the climate difficulty they already face. Social media users are falsely claiming that Gates owns the majority of U.S. farmland. Apply to GLOCALs 2023 program to help advance Latin American agrifoodtech, What is the role of biotech in an ethical food system? 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. Bill Gates reveals reasons behind massive farmland purchases Or, have more control over the resources we all use and need. His magazine, The Land Report, tracks major land transactions and produces an annual list of the 100 biggest US landowners. 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,. Theories began spreading that a future food shortage could lead to a collaboration between China and Gates to invest in American farming land and take control of the countrys food supply. 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. Thats a ginormous deal, one that pencils out to almost $12,000 per acre for a whole lot of acres. However, no one knows precisely when that will happen. The total portfolio of farmland is worth well over $700 million. The groups founding members are expected to spearhead the rollout of the new standards on their own lands.
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