Click here to view current offerings on AcreTrader! The cost is prohibitive for agricultural use of water. Bill Gates was right when he sold his own Microsoft stock to diversify through Cascade in 1994. 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. 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. Join our newsletter to stay up to date on the latest offers from Land Income. 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. This is a sponsored promotion for the AcreTrader platform. He created the pledge in 2010 with his then-wife, Melinda French Gates, and his close friend and Berkshire Hathaway CEO, Warren Buffett. His magazine, The Land Report, tracks major land transactions and produces an annual list of the 100 biggest US landowners. Today, the Belmont tract remains mostly empty desert. Gate's private American farmlands are worth an estimated $690 million.. Adding to the confusion, Blackstone was once a major investor in BlackRock, but sold off its stake in the 1990s. 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. Minutes later, a terse response arrived: Actually, when it comes to the extensive farmland portfolio of Bill and Melinda Gates, the question should be, Ever hear of Michael Larson? For the last 25 years, the Claremont McKenna College alum has managed the Gateses personal portfolio as well as the considerable holdings of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The project isnt yet funded. In 2000, the new Gates foundation launched with Bill, Melinda, and Warren Buffet on the trustee board. I dont think the poorest [] countries will be eating synthetic meat. New technologies must be developed to give more sustenance to land that we farm to keep it sustainable. Farmland has had a remarkably consistent ability to hedge against inflation, Sherrick says. ", Gates responded at the time, "My investment team bought the farmland. Meanwhile, a rep for Gates did highlight to The Post their Leading Harvest initiative, which requires farmland owners to work to continuously improve soil health, biodiversity and water, air and crop quality on their farms.. Remember that metal-sided building down near the Bayou Teche? 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. You either had to directly buy the land, pony up millions to participate in a fund or purchase farmland via a REIT. In the future, farmers will be paid for sustainability, says Sherrick, who sits on the groups board. Neither of these are a perfect option. Is this just a regular investment move, made on a large scale? the latest American Housing Survey by the Census Bureau. One must be an optimist to be an American farmer. Although the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has no ties whatsoever to Cascade or its investments, it also has a farmland initiative: Gates Ag One, which has established its headquarters in the Greater St. Louis area. For more information read our Risk Statement click here. Farming is all of a sudden part of the solution and not just part of the problem, Sherrick adds. Is Gladstone Land Corp (LAND) A Good Investment? While Bill Gates is technically the largest farmland owner in the United States, he isn't. Gates responded: "I own less than 1/4000 of the farmland in the US. Since its IPO in 1985, Microsoft has seen continual success. Gates is a renowned software developer, international philanthropist, noted business magnate, and investor. While the global climate change initiative is trying to reduce total emissions by the year 2050, the year 2030 is also important. However, there are also countless farmland investing platforms gaining traction now too. Dusky layers of silt and sand towered over the 6-foot-tall retired Washington State professor. Essentially, by year 2030, the estimated results of what carbon emissions (and their effect on the environment) will look like in 2050 will be decided in full. Get the latest news and research from AFN & AgFunder in your inbox. 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. In January 2021, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launched Gates Ag One, a nonprofit charitable firm. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. (Although our researchers identified dozens of different entities that own the Gateses assets, Larson himself operates primarily through an entity called Cascade Investment LLC.). 'Gorilla Glue girl' Tessica Brown finds breast lumps befor Woman has 'loud, full body orgasm' in the middle of LA concert, Bride killed, groom seriously hurt by drunk driver just minutes after leaving reception, All the red carpet highlights and star-studded fashionfrom the Karl Lagerfeld-themed Met Gala, The best-dressed celebs at the 2023 Met Gala: Rihanna, Gisele Bndchen, more, Kim Kardashians Met Gala 2023 look sparks comparisons to Playboy cover, Kim Kardashian, Pete Davidson reunite at Met Gala 9 months after breakup, Khristina Williams previews the New York Liberty's 2023 WNBA season, Elon Musk Tells Bill Maher Woke Mind Virus Is Dangerous On Real Time, Katy Perry will be temporarily replaced on 'American Idol' amid drama. In 2017, Angelina Plantation changed hands one more time and became one of the principal farmland assets in the Gateses Cascade Investments portfolio. 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. Why are you buying so much farmland? posed by one Reddit user,Gates indicated that seed science and biofuel development were major drivers of the acquisitions. That is the equivalent of almost 900 million acres of arable land used for industry in the country. 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. Thousand-acre transactions such as the sale of 6,000- acre Weidert Farm to Farmland L.P. two years ago and the 6,175-acre Broetje Orchards acquisition by the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan last year are blue-moon events. What special interest does Bill Gates have in farmland? In it, the four-time Academy Award winner plays an over-the-hill journalist who has a nosefor a story. According to the Tri-City Herald, a 14,500-acre swath of choice eastern Washington farmland in the Horse Heaven Hills of Benton County had just traded hands for almost $171 million. Bill Gates has bought enormous tracts of farmland. The firm is a shareholder in Dallas-based Invitation Homes, which owns nearly 80,000 single-family rentals nationwide. According to some scientific estimates, there may be only 1.7 trillion barrels of oil in the world today. With all of this recent farmland accumulation, one might think Gates is using this land to research these gene edited super seeds. It will help farmers in developing countries access Agri-Tech, improve farming tools, learn how to maximize yield better and better adapt to climate change. That means Gates, whose net worth is estimated at some $134 billion. Bill Gates is an American technology pioneer. One of the most telling moments in the field that summer came when a soil scientist by the name of Alan Busacca grabbed a shovel and stepped into a 10-foot trench that had been ripped open on the farm by a Caterpillar 336. In 2020, Gates made headlines for becoming the largest private farmland owner in the U.S. Ebbers was many things a dreamer, a liar, a swindler and he loved land. In fact, Gates is the owner of over 270,000acres of farmland, which is worth over $700 million! Contact Land Income today! I scanned the headline for the umpteenth time and then read and reread the pertinent details. 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). What do you think it could mean for the future of farming and food production? Gates, the billionaire tech mogul and philanthropist whose net worth was pegged by Bloomberg at $113 billion, has quietly amassed nearly 270,000 acres of farmland across the country, according. This high-tech metropolis could be both a breeding and testing ground for futuristic technologies.. The same logic likely holds for Gates Arizona acquisitions. In their Big Bet, they recognize that the impoverished people stand to be impacted the most by these changes. for different crops that have been gene edited to be pest-proof, flood proof, disease proof, and climate change-resistant. So while the tech mogul certainly owns a large constellation of farms, its nowhere close to the majority nationwide. BlackRock is sometimes confused w/ Blackstone, which owned Invitation Homes. Farmland as an investment offers low volatility. According to a press release by the Grand Forks council, Fufeng Group has chosen the town as its first US-based manufacturing facility after a 16-month comprehensive evaluation process, where they are expected to produce 25 million bushels of corn annually. Former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates owns a majority of America's farmland. You might remember an intriguing story from earlier this year, when an investigative journalist discovered that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates had been quietly buying up so much farmland. For example, seeds are being genetically designed to grow in near non-arable and hostile soil conditions.. Bill Gates $13.5 million investment in 2,100 sprawling acres of North Dakota land has raised questions as the purchase coincided with a controversial Chinese company buying 370 acres of farmland just 40 miles away. We want to be open to ideas that seem wild.. Jun 24, 2022, 8:13 AM PDT. Leon Neal/Getty Images. 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. The company also took to Twitter to reject the false narrative. The advancements in super-crop technology will create better agriculture yield, combat food insecurity and financially protect farmers in developing countries who are always one bad crop season away from financial ruin. The total portfolio of farmland is worth well over $700 million. Even in an age of rapidly encroaching automation, it isn't, and never has been, easy being a farmer. As Slate financial writer Henry Grabar concluded, the proposed town of Belmont is not a city, nor is it smart, nor does the Microsoft founder appear to be involved in any meaningful way.. In a 2020 blog post, he wrote, "The rich should pay more than they currently do, and that includes Melinda and me.". 2023 Meredith Corporation. Biofuels are renewable fuel sources that are created from the biomass of animals and plants. dvelopper et amliorer nos produits et services. People want to know, Why does Bill Gates want all this land?. About 60% of the farmers in Africa and Asia, almost 3 billion people, are poverty-stricken subsistence farmers. The nearby community of Buckeye has grown more than tenfold in the last 20 years. What Returns Should You Expect From Farmland Investing? 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. In January 2021, Bill Gates became the largest owner of farmland in the United States. Currently, no one knows. Super-crops are genetically modified seeds, crops and livestock to maximize as much yield as possible. Called Leading Harvest, the organizations goal is to create a sustainability standard that can be implemented across the greatest swath of agricultural acreage. , said his investment group was behind the purchases, and suggested it was linked to seed and biofuel development. Si vous ne souhaitez pas que nos partenaires et nousmmes utilisions des cookies et vos donnes personnelles pour ces motifs supplmentaires, cliquez sur Refuser tout. In addition, corporations and the rich are investing in farmland to deal with climate change and supply products to a hungry world with changing tastes.. That can mean better yields with decreased use of fertilizers and pesticides. There will be incentives for things like using less water, fewer chemicals, and storing more carbon. But it also means we can devote less of the planets surface to farmland, which is good news for forests and ecosystems. You cant just say, Ive got $30,000 saved up and I want to buy some farmland, Sherrick notes. These allow investors to get stared with as little as $10,000. The moguls holdings include large tracts in Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, California, and about a dozen other states. Along with his wife Melinda Gates, Bill owns over 268,000 acres of farmland diversified in over 19 states. And Gates says investing in more farmland in the future is not off the table. The Tri-City Herald reported that the purchaser was a Louisiana investor, a limited liability company associated with Angelina Agriculture of Monterey, Louisiana. The largest parcel, a proposed 24,800-acre development known as Belmont, might someday contain 80,000 homes, along with offices, retail, industrial and logistics facilities. 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. It seems like Gates is getting ahead of the curve, relative to future Agri-Tech advances profitability, with his farmland investments. And thats where the land purchases come in. Last year, Gates vowed to give away "virtually all" of his fortune to the philanthropic foundation he runs with French Gates. The Land Report tracks numerous Louisiana landowners; Angelina Agriculture is not one of them. 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. And the traditional ways of owning, operating and profiting from farmland will probably change now that Bill Gates is the largest private owner of farmland in the country. 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. As of 2020, industry reports show he owned about 0.027% of U.S. farmland. For related content and insights from industry experts, sign up for Successful Farming newsletters. Given the size and cost of 100 Circles, both of those figures made no sense at all. In the spring, the Fufeng Group, the largest privately-owned xanthan gum producer and flavor enhancer in China, dropped $2.6 million for farmland near Grand Forks a rural area that borders Minnesota and is about a 90-minute drive from the Canadian border. Currently, more than 2 million acres in 22 states and an additional 2 million acres in seven countries are represented. He was right when he predicted the COVID-19 epidemic in 2015. Pretty pricey dirt, right? Jeff Bezos is 25th and owns about 420,000 acres of farmland. AcreTrader has carved out a niche for themselves that has led to rapid market dominance. As more investors look to buy land, those who got in earlier are poised to benefit from the appreciation of the land value. It took a dozen years, but the ownership of that Louisiana farmland went from Bernie Ebbers to Bill Gates with a couple of stops in between. There wasnt a rock, let alone a pebble, or even a root to be seen in the soil. The Gates Foundation has focused their efforts on alleviating the aftermaths of climate change since its founding. 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. We've received your submission. Here are a few likely reasons why Bill Gates is scooping up farmland: Whatever you may think about the man himself, he has consistently made investing choices that brought him unusual and incredible returns, and this has brought him great wealth when others made the wrong fiscal moves, and lost much. The day before he went to prison, Ebbers sold Angelina for $32 million. Since 2016, Gates has led Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a venture-capital fund that invests in clean-technology startups. 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. Some of the links on this site are affiliate links. - Bill and Melinda Gates are taking on the new title of the biggest farmland owners in the United States, with a good chunk of that ownership being in Arkansas. But a Gates spokesperson said in a statement on Friday that the claim that hes bought the majority of the nations farmland is false, pointing to. According to the St. Louis Business Journal, Gates Ag One will focus on research that helps small-holder farmers adapt to climate change and make food production in low- and middle-income countries more productive, resilient, and sustainable.. 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. Since his divorce, it is unclear how the assets were split up between the couple. Many people wonder why Bill Gates would make these moves with his investment portfolio. With more productive seeds we can avoid deforestation and help Africa deal with the climate difficulty they already face. Think about how much Bill Gates would have lost if he hadn't diversified in 1999. Any why now after years of massive success? Are you interested in investing in farmland? Gates is considered the largest individual private owner of farmland in the country with more than 280,000 acres across dozens of states, according to last years edition of the Land Report 100, an annual survey of the nations largest landowners. Over the next five years, AgCoA acquired more than 100,000 acres in nine states. BlackRock also does not own the majority of the country's 80 million single-family homes. According to press reports, Gates farmland empire is mostly managed by a Cascade subsidiary called Cottonwood Ag Management. Land Income. We need a lot of technologies synthetic meat, energy storage, new ways of making building materials, he wrote. We wont even come close.. The region west of Phoenix is booming. 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. And farmland investments are great additions to a diversified portfolio.. Sign up for notifications from Insider! Purchasing your own farm outright means that you are not diversified across many farms; just 1. Gates is just using farmland to make Agri-Tech and financial investments. 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. By using this website, you accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. However, the Gates Foundation has been largely transparent at every level of their operations from their objectives, means, successes, and failures. There were 895.3. Returns from farmland have actually outpaced the stock market in recent years with significantly less volatility. The farm was subsequently sold to AgCoA, which was acquired by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. The soil profile and underlying silty loess are in a league of their own. Why doesnt everyone just invest in farmland then? Why Bill Gates is Buying Farmland. Turns out that very same property had caught my eye way back when The Land Report was preparing to launch in 2006. Gate's acquisition of so much American farmland may aid in manifesting technological improvement endeavors. Lorsque vous utilisez nos sites et applications, nous utilisons des, authentifier les utilisateurs, appliquer des mesures de scurit, empcher les spams et les abus; et. But in total the Microsoft co-founder owns less than 1% of the nations total farmland. Oct. 8, 2021. Gates has been asked about his farmland purchases before. Some partners in the Arizona project issued a press release touting plans to build a forward-thinking community that embraces cutting-edge technology. There was talk of high-speed digital networks and autonomous logistics hubs. That was all it took for many in the media to conclude that Gates was personally engineering the city of the future. But if it ever gets built, it would boost the value of Gates land dramatically. Top 5 farms with the largest acreage in the U.S. How farmers can maximize the value of forestland, Northeastern Indiana farmland sells for $19,984 per acre. This half-billion-dollar figure corroborated the AgCoA acquisition, and the paper trail led directly to Cascade Investment LLC. Cows may be given miracle vaccines to help them produce higher quality milk and meat. Youre not investing in a building that will decay over time, but the rich farmland itself. 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. It is not connected to climate, he wrote. By Tim Gray. 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. In the Reddit AMA, he also said he'll sell what he owns as money goes towards the foundation. In the past 20 years, the foundation has grown to hold over $48 billion. More often than not, farmland sales involve hundreds of acres. As we learned above, in most farmland investment situations, the farmland owner leases their land to tenant farmers, who usually live on and work the land. Thats exactly what I thought. Just 2% was donated. That makes him the largest landowner in the U.S. Stats show agriculture is a pretty good investment for. In 1994, the Gateses hired the former Putnam Investments bond-fund manager to diversify the couples portfolio away from the Microsoft cofounders 45% stake in the technology giant while maintaining comparable or better returns. The Gates Foundation isnt the entity utilizing the land, but rather just Bills family office. According to The Land Report, at the time, Gates had a total of 268,985 acres, almost all of which is active farmland. In reality, the idea that Bill Gates was single-handedly reinventing farming or designing cities of tomorrow was almost entirely speculation. Over 39% of the income generated by farmers in 2021 will come from tens of billions in government subsidy payments.. Gates owns roughly 275,000 acres of farmland in the US, according to the 2022 edition of the Land Report 100, a yearly survey of the biggest landowners in the country. However, the development and implementation of new technologies to withdraw fossil fuels hidden deep in the earth are currently financially impractical. More farmland investments may help struggling farms survive. Bill left most of his professional work at Microsoft at this time to work with Melinda and the foundation. The landowners can include investors like Gates. For now, though, all that smart city talk is more than a little premature. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Thanks for contacting us. 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. And from an agricultural perspective, the region surrounding Walla Walla and the Horse Heaven Hills has evolved into a commercial hub, complete with controlled atmosphere (CA) storage, state-of-the-art transportation infrastructure, and ready access to low-cost hydropower. Yet farmland assets arent the sole component of the Gateses landholdings. This parcel which apparently makes up the bulk of the Gatess farmland holdings had previously belonged to Agriculture Company of America, a real estate investment trust acquired by CPIBB in 2013. Perhaps Bill Gates is looking to test out his GMO seeds. Bill Gates does not own the majority of U.S. farmland. With proper techniques, the carbon from decaying plant matter can be kept safely in the soil, rather than entering the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide. So, if farmers do not improve farming methods, local communities suffer. Theres a tendency in the media to personalize this, OKeefe says. Strike two. of the richest people in the country, owns less than one percent of the nations total farmland. While he owns a significant amount, it is a relatively small slice of the nations nearly 900 million total farm acres. If the nations largest farmland owner can show that farming can be both sustainable and profitable, that will make a big difference. The billionaire tech mogul and philanthropist has quietly amassed nearly 270,000 acres of farmland across the country, but that's still a relatively small slice of the nation's nearly 900 million total farm acres. There were 895.3 million acres of farmland in America in 2021, according to a 2022 reportfrom the Department of Agriculture. There isn't some grand scheme involved - in fact all these decisions are made by a professional investment team.". I like that we have more value added., I dont like that its China, but the reality is, I dont have a leg to stand on because if theres nothing unlawful about it, just because I dont like something, doesnt mean it should go away.. That was the missing piece of the puzzle I had been searching for as I read the Tri-City Herald story.