| Photo by Wikimedia Commons . The potential is endless. Gates and his investment team own more than 240,000 acres, as reported by O'Keefe, including 2,167 acres in Michigan. Housecall is the official blog of RISMedia, covering real estate news and information for agents, brokers and their clients. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. Murdaugh is heckled as he leaves court, Ken Bruce finishes his 30-year tenure as host of BBC Radio 2, Ukrainian soldier takes out five tanks with Javelin missiles, Family of a 10-month-old baby filmed vaping open up, Missing hiker buried under snow forces arm out to wave to helicopter, Hershey's Canada releases HER for SHE bars featuring a trans activist, Moment teenager crashes into back of lorry after 100mph police race. Theres a more cynical calculation. Gates has been buying land like its going out of style. He owns 242,000 acres, which is equivalent to the area of Fannin County GA. 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 Citizen Kane. It was the highest priced land sale in the US that year. AP'S ASSESSMENT: False. That is a big chunk of land. 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. (Ruth Fremson/The New York Times) (Ruth Fremson / The New York Times via Redux Pictures), John Quarterman on his farm in Lowndes County, Ga. (Matt Odom / for NBC News), John Quarterman stands by the Withlacoochee River. BlackRock is sometimes confused w/ Blackstone, which owned Invitation Homes. CNN founder Ted Turner owns 2 million acres of land largely in New Mexico, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Georgia. The state's Republican Attorney General Drew Wrigley had inquired into the land sale, and on Wednesday issued a letter saying the transaction complied with an archaic anti-corporate [] Today, Bill Gates owns 242,000 acres of farmland in 19 states. Lemmon Holdings, the billionaire spent $80 million to purchase. If they purchased the rest of their farmland for similar prices, that would put the value of their 242,000 acres at almost $3 billion. 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). That kind of hard work isnt what made him rich. Bill Gates top private farmland owner in US. Real estate mogul and owner of the Los Angeles Rams, Stan Kroenke, owns 1.4 million acres of land in the United States, including a 124,000 acre ranch in Montana and additional land in Wyoming. However, his largest land holdings are in Louisiana (69,071 acres), Arkansas (47,927 acres), Nebraska (20,588 acres . 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. Though the Gateses are major owners of American farmland, the couples holdings only represent a fraction of the 283 million acres of farmland that is owned and rented out by nonfarmers. 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., ill Gates has never been a farmer. 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. 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. The worlds richest 1% emit double the carbon of the poorest 50%, an 2020 Oxfam study found. In addition, the land is audited to meet sustainability standards including soil health and water management. 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. It can be used for residential development, commercial projects, industrial zoning, public or semi-public use, agriculture, or right of way (a way for others to access a different piece of land or portion of the land). There is a certain irony, of course, about Gates, 65, becoming the USA's biggest private owner of farmland, which American publication the Land Report recently declared him to be. In north Louisiana, the Gateses investment firm owns about 70,000 acres of land through at least three other shell companies. So while the tech mogul certainly owns a large constellation of farms, its nowhere close to the majority nationwide. Renewable energy company Savion has an option to buy the property for what . Bruere said some states such as Iowa enforce foreign ownership restrictions to prohibit foreign ownership or limit . Malone also has 25% shares in Liberty Global, the largest international cable company with just under 30million subscribers, and owns 8% of the Atlanta Braves baseball team. The outlet reported this week that Gates, 65, owns 268,984 acres of. That was a virus I got from Ted Turner.. The Microsoft co-founder faced several claims that he owned a majority of Americas farmland earlier this year. Learn more about fact-checking at AP. The largest. He owns significantly more farmland than Minnesota's Offutt family and California's Resnick family, which each own 190,000 acres and rank second equal on the list. NBC News also found that another 6,500 acres in north Florida are owned by yet another company, Suwannee River Terra, which was also started with an address in Kirkland and an email address from the Bill and Melinda Gates Investment Firm, which is now registered to the current chief counsel of Oak River Farms with a mailing address in Kansas, according to property records. retail, office buildings, hotels and apartment complexes, rather than single-family homes, but he declined to provide a breakdown. They accounted for almost 1% of the agricultural land in the United States. 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. These shell companies have made it difficult to find out where and how much farmland the Gateses own even for local farmers, like John S. Quarterman, a farmer and landowner who grows okra, corn, squash and other vegetables in Lowndes County on the southern edge of Georgia. . Malone made the decision to put billions of his wealth into land ownership after spending a summer working on a family farm in Pennsylvania. Farmer Bill. Bill Gates currently owns over 268,000 acres of American farmland spread out over 19 states. 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. 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. (Stephen Osman / Los Angeles Times via AP file), The buildings of the 100 Circles Farm are at the center of this satellite image. You may also be interested in why a billionaire wants land. While he owns nearly half of the Four Season Holding's hotel chain through Cascade, he also has partial ownership of Charles Hotel in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The 13,573-square-foot home has six bedrooms, 11 bedrooms and more luxury features than you can count. Kroenke is married to Ann Walkton Kroenke, an heiress to the Wal-Mart fortune. To put that into perspective, thats nearly the size of Hong Kong and twice the acreage of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, where Im an enrolled member. Hes the landlord, or rather, the companies owned by his investment firm are the landlords. In total, Bill and Melinda Gates have acquired land in more than a dozen states. The Associated Press reports that last week, billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates was cleared to purchase 2,100 acres of rural North Dakota farmland. Bill Gates may no longer be the world's richest man, but he can claim a new title: America's farmland king. 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. Adding to the confusion, Blackstone was once a major investor in BlackRock, but sold off its stake in the 1990s. Malone owns several ranching and real estate businesses predominantly in Maine, New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming. Media billionaire Ted Turner has also invested in 2 million acres of land (much of it rangeland and prairie, rather than cropland) and earned the distinction of being the largest private owner of buffalo herds that roam the 200,000 acres of his private ranch, The Guardian reported. But theyre far better known for their work in tech and in trying to save the climate. Bill Gates has secured legal approval for the controversial purchase of thousands of acres of prime North Dakota farmland, after the deal drew fury from the state's residents. 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. In enrolling in Leading Harvest, Cascade has implemented new initiatives on its farmland holdings ranging from adding additional pollinator habitat in Nebraska to planting wildlife-friendly trees on dry pivot corners in Florida to hosting grain bin safety rescue training for the local community in Louisiana to converting numerous diesel power units to electric to reduce carbon output, to name a few, Zheren said. Why should striking rail and postal workers get a big pay rise while our pay packets remain stagnant or worse? Bill Gates may be trading his pocket protector for cowboy boots. Someone else is owning that asset, whether it's rented equipment or land. The extensive tax avoidance by these titans of industry will always far exceed their supposed charitable donations to the public. But some farmers whose land is adjacent to that of the Gateses have expressed disappointment that despite the couples wealth, they have not done more to preserve the environment. Its a hedging strategy, said Daniel Bigelow, a professor of agricultural economics at Montana State University, who previously served as a USDA research economist. What Is The Banking Process To Buy Raw Land, Price Of Agricultural Land In The Philippines. Bill Gates owns more private farmland in the US than anyone else, an analysis by The Land Report found. A 2014 Wall Street Journal profile of Larson, Cascade's chief investment officer, hinted at the beginning of that portfolio, after 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.'. For Indigenous caretakers, land use isnt premised on a return of investments; its about maintaining the land for the next generation, meeting the needs of the present, and a respect for the diversity of life. Seems like there could be a lot to benefit more of their charities by selling some of this off. The acquisitions are held directly, as well as through Gates' personal investment entity, Cascade Investments. 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. Besides the enrollment of their landholdings in Leading Harvest, the Gates Foundation in 2020 also created an agricultural nonprofit, Gates Ag One, which focuses on bringing affordable solutions to small-scale farmers in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia to improve crop productivity. The value depends on a lot of factors including location, type of land, acreage, supply, demand, and more. Weve been trained by experience, land acquisition courses, and hundreds of hours meeting with county assessors and clerks, zoning officials, realtors, and land investors.
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