Background Land market
How Bill Gates is Changing Agriculture in the US
Out of nowhere, Microsoft co-founder and billionaire Bill Gates rose to become the largest farmer in the United States. That writes the magazine The Land Report. The investigation shows that both Gates' own companies and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have quietly purchased thousands of acres of farmland.
According to extensive research by The Country Report Bill Gates enters as largest farmland owner. They estimate his portfolio at 242.000 acres. That is converted almost 98.000 hectares. In second place is the farming family Offutt with a total of 2 hectares of agricultural land.
mega deal
Journalists tracked down the Gates family's drive to expand when huge holdings of valuable farmland were sold for astronomical sums to obscure letterbox firms. In one of the most fertile agricultural areas in Washington State, nearly 6.000 acres of land traded for an amount of €141 million. Deals that can normally only be paid by pension funds or other big money lenders. The seller of the company was John Hancock, a life insurance company. After much research, it turned out that a mailbox company from Bill Gates had bought the land.
All over the United States, both Gates and Bill and Melinda's foundation own land. Most of the acres are in the states of Louisiana (27.952 acres), Arkansas (19.395 acres), and Nebraska (9.141 acres). Especially when it secretly acquired almost the entire land portfolio from the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) in 2017, the multibillionaires went big in land.
Dozens of companies
The land is in the name of all kinds of different companies that are eventually linked to the Gates'. That's the work of Michael Larson, who has managed the family's portfolio for 25 years. The largest company is called Cascade Investment LLC, but there are dozens of other companies, the magazine writes. Larson's job is to invest the family's money smartly and get a good return. He started that when Bill Gates tried to distance himself from his share in Microsoft.
Why Cascade Investment has acquired so much land in a decade and what they intend to do with it remains vague. The company does not answer questions and says it only supports sustainable farming practices. It is therefore not surprising that a certified sustainability standard 'Leading Harvest' is being led by another company that is linked to Gates.
Philanthropic work
More is being done on sustainable agriculture. There is another BV for that: Gates Ag One. This St. Louis company claims to help smallholder farmers deal with climate change, increase production, increase the sustainability and resilience of their businesses. All of this in low- and middle-income countries. Many of the activities of the philanthropic foundation are aimed at improving living conditions in Africa, among other places. The foundation is also a co-funder of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway. A huge underground bunker on Spitsbergen where millions of different seeds are stored.
The journalists of The Land Report have no doubt that Bill Gates - with an estimated wealth of €105 billion in 2020 - will also leave a mark on the agricultural sector in the US. On the one hand as an investor with very deep pockets and on the other as a philanthropist with ambitions in the field of agriculture.
Niels van der Boom
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