America's Biggest Owner Of Farmland Is Now Bill Gates

"real people should be farming america, so sad !!!"
~ Susan Lynne Schwenger

America's Biggest Owner

Of Farmland is Now Bill Gates

America’s Biggest Owner Of Farmland Is Now Bill Gates

Ariel ShapiroForbes Staff
Billionaires
I cover wealth.


CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES
Bill Gates, the fourth richest person in the world
and a self-described nerd who is known
for his early programming skills
rather than his love of the outdoors,
has been quietly snatching up
242,000 acres of farmland across the U.S.
— enough to make him the top private farmland owner in America.

After years of reports that he was purchasing
agricultural land in places like Florida and Washington,
The Land Report revealed that Gates, who has a net worth
of nearly $121 billion according to Forbes,
has built up a massive farmland portfolio
spanning 18 states.

His largest holdings are in Louisiana (69,071 acres),
Arkansas (47,927 acres) and Nebraska (20,588 acres).

Additionally, he has a stake in 25,750 acres
of transitional land on the west side of Phoenix, Arizona,
which is being developed as a new suburb.

According to The Land Report’s research,
the land is held directly and through third-party entities
by Cascade Investments, Gates’ personal investment vehicle.

Cascade’s other investments include food-safety company Ecolab,
used-car retailer Vroom and Canadian National Railway.




While it may be surprising that a tech billionaire
would also be the biggest farmland owner in the country,
this is not Gates’ only foray into agriculture.

In 2008, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
announced $306 million in grants to promote high-yield,
sustainable agriculture among smallholder farmers
in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

The foundation has further invested in the development
and proliferation of “super crops” resistant to climate change
and higher-yield dairy cows.

Last year, the organization announced Gates Ag One,
a nonprofit to advance those efforts.

It is not entirely clear how Gates’ farmland is being used,
or whether any of the land is being set aside for conservation.
(Cascade did not return Forbes’ request for comment.)

However, there is some indication that the land could be used
in a way that aligns with the foundation’s values.

Cottonwood Ag Management, a subsidiary of Cascade,
is a member of Leading Harvest, a nonprofit that promotes
sustainable agriculture standards that prioritize protections of crops,
soil and water resources.


Gates is not the only billionaire on The Land Report’s list
of top private farmland owners.

Wonderful Company cofounders Stewart and Lynda Resnick
(net worth: $7.1 billion) ranked number three with 190,000 acres.

Their farmland produces the goods for their brands including POM Wonderful, Wonderful Pistachios and Wonderful Halos mandarins.

While Gates may be the country’s biggest farmland owner,
he by no means is the largest individual landowner.

In its list of 100 top American landowners,
The Land Report gives the top spot to Liberty Media Chair John Malone,
who owns 2.2 million acres of ranches and forests.
CNN founder Ted Turner ranked number three
with 2 million acres of ranch land across eight states.
Even Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is investing in land on a large scale,
landing the 25th spot with his ownership of 420,000 acres,
mainly in west Texas.

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Ariel Shapiro

I am a wealth reporter at Forbes covering billionaires
who made their money in media, tech and retail.
I previously worked on the Media & Entertainment team,
where I compiled lists of the highest-paid comedians,
podcasters and authors. B

efore coming to Forbes, I graduated from NYU's
Business and Economic Reporting program
and worked as an associate producer at MSNBC.

Tips to ashapiro@forbes.com.


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