Farmland can be an investment in several ways. If you own a good amount of land, then you have the possibility of subdividing it into multiple lots that can generate separate income streams. Nick Estes is a citizen of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe. The comments below have not been moderated, By The extensive tax avoidance by these titans of industry will always far exceed their supposed charitable donations to the public. 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. For five generations, the Reed Family has owned and operated the logging company Green Diamond Resource Co. As the population grows in large cities, some people will inevitably want to move to the country. 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.. A white man owns more farmland than my entire Native nation! Is this simply a diversification of Gates' massive tech investment portfolio? The sale was notable because it added to Gates' farmland holdings which includes large tracts of land in Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, California, and about a dozen other states. BlackRock, meanwhile, is also not the owner of the majority of single family houses in the country. Raw land is not developed. Many people wonder why Bill Gates would make these moves with his investment portfolio. 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. While Gates owns nearly 270,000 acres of farmland across the US, he isnt the largest landowner in the country. When Quarterman first heard about Gates firm buying land in the area, he began digging through local property records, linking addresses and business records from registered owners to Kirkland-based companies, until he was able to piece together that the companies buying multiple tracts of land in the Suwannee River Basin were all a shell of a shell of a shell company investing for Bill Gates. NBC News independently confirmed that there were, in fact, shell companies tracing back to Gates firm that purchased 6,021 acres across four counties in Georgia. He owns 242,000 acres, which is equivalent to the area of Fannin County GA. A 2018 purchase of 14,500 acres of prime eastern Washington farmland which is traditional Yakama territory for $171m helped him get that title. Adding to the confusion, Blackstone was once a major investor in BlackRock, but sold off its stake in the 1990s. The billionaire Microsoft co-founder has become the largest owner of farmland in the United States by quietly buying up massive plots across the county, a new report says. 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). The project is in its early . Bruere said some states such as Iowa enforce foreign ownership restrictions to prohibit foreign ownership or limit . Now Bill Gates appears to have acquired a slice of their tiny city, and locals near. Bill and Melinda have purchased numerous properties in Wellington, Florida, over the years. 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. 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. The acquisitions are held directly, as well as through Gates' personal investment entity, Cascade Investments. Housecall is the official blog of RISMedia, covering real estate news and information for agents, brokers and their clients. He is also the chairman and largest stakeholder of Liberty Media, possessing 28% of Discovery Communications, which was acquired by Scripps Network for $14.6billion. The tech mogul, who is the. It also offers proven return rates. The land that Gates owns is located in several states and consists primarily of commercial farmland. The January 11 issue of The Land Report is worth reading. Someone else is owning that asset, whether it's rented equipment or land. AP'S ASSESSMENT: False. Weve answered hundreds of questions from people regarding the buying and use of land. 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. The Associated Press reports that last week, billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates was cleared to purchase 2,100 acres of rural North Dakota farmland. 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. The Microsoft co-founder faced several claims that he owned a majority of Americas farmland earlier this year. 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. Except, it seems, when it comes to a private individual selling some land to iconic billionaire Bill Gates. 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. 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. There farmers primarily grow soybeans, rice, corn and cotton. This is part of APs effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. , an annual survey of the nations largest landowners. The foundation aims to support country-led inclusive agricultural transformation across sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, according to its website. The Emmerson family owns and operates Sierra Pacific Industries, a company that logs usable lumber after forest fires and sells it to lumber retailers. 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. 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 14,000 acres in Washington is used for potatoes and in Florida the land is used for carrots. That is a big chunk of land. Gates is now America's largest private farmland owner, with hundreds of thousands of acres spanning across 19 U.S. states, according to the Land Report. In Nebraska where he owns 20,000 acres, it is used for soybeans. Quarterman also serves as the Suwannee Riverkeeper and advocates for conservation of the intricate network of springs and rivers in the region, where water from the swamps of Georgia flow into Florida before they release into the Gulf of Mexico. An NBC News analysis also identified Gates as the largest farmland owner in the US. This could allow you to sell or lease the individual lots of land on the property. . He owns 2m acres and has the worlds largest privately owned buffalo herd. Here is an overview of all of the property the couple owned together at the time of their divorce: Bill and Melinda dont publicly discuss this topic often, but they are the top owners of farmland in the U.S. With some 242,000 acres, the estimated value of their farmland is in the billions. According to the Land Report 100 Research Team, that figure is currently more than twice that amount, which means Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, has an alter ego: Farmer Bill, the guy who owns more farmland than anyone else in America. This number stems from last year's edition of . The principal danger of private farmland owners like Bill Gates is not their professed support of sustainable agriculture often found in philanthropic work its the monopolistic role they play in determining our food systems and land use patterns. BlackRock also does not own the majority of the countrys 80 million single-family homes. You just have to keep it relatively clean, mow it, and pay property taxes. The firm is a shareholder in Dallas-based Invitation Homes, which owns nearly 80,000 single-family rentals nationwide. While land is a limited resource, there is still less competition for raw land than there is with residential and commercial real estate. 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. 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. Bill Gates may no longer be the worlds richest man, but he can claim a new title: Americas farmland king. Weve never been one of the big institutional buyers of single family homes, BlackRock, single-family rentals nationwide. The Microsoft co-founder has reportedly purchased an $8.9 million Wyoming ranch that was once the stomping grounds of Buffalo Bill . In 2014, he reportedly purchased more than 4,500 acres in Suwannee County, Florida, for nearly $28 million. Gates shares 95% of the ownership with Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. the latest American Housing Survey by the Census Bureau. 4. Almost 300,000 acres is a lot of land for one family or private individual to own, but it's still just a. One of the Gates' favorite vacation homes is in the Yellowstone Club in Big Sky, Montana. On Friday, a showdown between two of the largest agricultural landowners in the United Statesthe Church of Latter-Day Saints and Bill Gates ' wealth management firmcame . A MAP has revealed which billionaire owns the largest amount of land in the US - youll be shocked to know that it isnt Bill Gates. 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. These land holdings are separate from their previous investments in companies that support large-scale farming like Monsanto and the tractor manufacturer John Deere. Bill Gates does not own the majority of U.S. farmland. The 13,573-square-foot home has six bedrooms, 11 bedrooms and more luxury features than you can count. if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'askbamland_com-large-mobile-banner-2','ezslot_9',109,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-askbamland_com-large-mobile-banner-2-0'); Raw land can be a great way to generate passive income or even spur large profits in the long term (or even short term if you know what you are doing). 4 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. The biggest chunks of Gates holdings are in Louisiana and Arkansas, where he owns 69,071 acres and 47,927 acres, respectively, the outlets research found. According to the Tri-City Herald, 14,500 acres of Eastern Washington farmland was recently sold to the couple for almost $171 millionthats nearly $12,000 an acre. I mean, it is unlikely that one of the richest people in the world would invest in something that wasnt a good investment, right? The billionaire couple, in less than a decade, have accumulated more than 269,000 acres of farmland across 18 states, more than the entire acreage of New York City. The biggest shift in recent years from small to big farms was in the US. Well, youd think, if you're looking for somebody with enough capital to try that, he would go first. 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. Bill Gates owns more private farmland in the US than anyone else, an analysis by The Land Report found. America's leading landowners added hundreds of thousands of acres to their holdings last year. They own the soil where the potatoes in McDonalds french fries grow, the carrots from the worlds largest producer and the onions that Americans saut every night for dinner. 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. 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. A Grimmway Farms employee moves a water pipe at one of their carrot farms in the Antelope Valley near Lancaster, Calif., in 2004. The largest. Financial titans like Prudential and Hancock have divisions specifically for investors looking to make money on farmland portfolios. What expertise in climate science or agriculture Gates possesses beyond being filthy rich is anyones guess. In addition, the land is audited to meet sustainability standards including soil health and water management. Cascade did not immediately respond to a phone message Friday, and the company declined to comment to The Land Report other than to say that Cascade is very supportive of sustainable farming, the outlet said. In fact, he owns some of the land that produces potatoes used to make McDondalds french fries. The Microsoft co-founder acquired 14,500 acres of the fertile land in 2018, helping to make him the largest private farmland owner in the US, with total holdings of almost 250,000 acres,. It is unclear why Gates, better known as a self-confessed computing 'nerd', has invested in farmland so heavily, and details of the land are scarce,as revealed in The Land Report. 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. 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. 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. While the Gates own a lot of farmland, nonfarmers own 283 million acres of farmland throughout the U.S. if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'askbamland_com-medrectangle-4','ezslot_3',103,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-askbamland_com-medrectangle-4-0'); This article will go into detail about how much land Bill Gates owns and why he owns so much. Through his subsidiary Mt. Michelle, has two of its largest vineyards in that AVA: Canoe Ridge Vineyard and Columbia Crest Vineyard. Bill Gates uses farmland as investment vehicle, owning 269,000 acres of land. 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).
