In 2008, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced $306 million in grants designed to boost the yields and incomes of millions of small farmers in Africa as well as "other parts of the . The total portfolio of farmland is worth well over $700 million. Grinning and bearing it? ITS like having a new life, says Lucy Banda, a farmer in Mwambaso village in western Malawi. Were predicting a decline of 20 to 40 per cent in rainfall across West Africa, says David Sarfo Ameyaw of AGRA. P4P aims to link the smallholder farmers explicitly into the process. The firm is a shareholder in Dallas-based Invitation Homes, which owns nearly 80,000 single-family rentals nationwide. Bill Gates is the largest owner of land in America and there's a food crisis.. Bill Gates is the largest investor in renewables and there's a oil shortage.. Pelham (@Resist_05) April 18, 2022 Which in turn means less impact on the environment. Larson makes money, and Mr. Gates gives it away., Larson and his team are famously tight-lipped. 2 min read. Introduction. . But the purchaser of record was a small, obscure company in Louisiana. The groups founding members are expected to spearhead the rollout of the new standards on their own lands. In a recent episode of 60 Minutes, Gates explained that zero-carbon energy sources like nuclear power are vital in reducing the emissions that warm the atmosphere. The group is called Leading Harvest, and the Gates-linked Cottonwood Ag is one of its founding members. What is the Venus-Jupiter conjunction and how can you view it? James B. Meigs is the co-host of the How Do We Fix It? podcast and the former editor-in-chief of Popular Mechanics. Some are near cities and might end up having other uses.". Ive gotten a big earful on this from clear across the state, its not even from that neighborhood, said Goehring. FILE - Bill Gates attends a discussion during the 'Munich Security Conference' in Munich, Germany, Friday, Feb. 18, 2022. Bill Gates land purchases look to me more like sensible long-term holds run by experienced asset managers.. Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, has an alter ego, OKeefe wrote: Farmer Bill, the guy who owns more farmland than anyone else in America., The Land Report scoop made headlines. African smallholders are often isolated, unable to get credit or find buyers for their produce. CNN founder Ted Turner owns 2 million acres of land largely in New Mexico, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Georgia. Climate change is happening, and we must use all best practices to allow farmers to adapt. He added: 'In addition, the states oldest winery, Chateau Ste. Earlier this week, North Dakota State Attorney General Drew Wrigley wrote a letter to Red River Trust, care of Headley, notifying it that corporations and limited liability companies were prohibited from owning or leasing farmland or ranchland in the state of North Dakota., Wrigley wrote that these entities were also barred from engaging in farming or ranching.. The 65-year-old's holdings include 16,097 acres in Washington, 20,588 in Nebraska, 25,750 in Arizona . Amazing, if truebut its extremely not. Gates,in an Ask Me Anything sessionon Redditlast year, said his investment group was behind the purchases, and suggested it was linked to seed and biofuel development. He now owns more farmland than my entire Native American nation New Scientist went to press before the meeting finished. Impossible Foods had seen a huge surge in demandfor its Impossible Burger product that year. 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. Slectionnez Grer les paramtres pour grer vos prfrences. buying an increasing share of the U.S. housing market. In emails, BlackRock spokesman Christopher Beattie told The Associated Press that the firm. Opinion: Bill Gates and Warren Buffett should thank American taxpayers for their profitable farmland investments Last Updated: March 13, 2021 at 11:54 a.m. Adding to the confusion, Blackstone was once a major investor in BlackRock, but sold off its stake in the 1990s. Deploying high-yield . She then joined the AGRA programme (see main story), who put her forward as a model participant. But it also means we can devote less of the planets surface to farmland, which is good news for forests and ecosystems. ', In 2008, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced $306 million in grants designed to boost the yields and incomes of millions of small farmers in Africa as well as 'other parts of the developing world so they can lift themselves and their families out of hunger and poverty.'. In reality, the idea that Bill Gates was single-handedly reinventing farming or designing cities of tomorrow was almost entirely speculation. Now, its latest report says the scheme is achieving its aims. ', Cascade did not elaborate on the agricultural land purchases other than to say that the company is 'very supportive of sustainable farming. 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. This means biosludge from human waste will be spread on farms to grow more GMOs all to save the planet.. Jumbuck Pastoral Company is owned by the MacLachlan family. Renmatix has developed a process that converts plant waste and biomass into sugars that can be converted into biofuels and bio versions of chemicals.The patented Plantrose process uses supercritical water to reduce the costsof converting biomass to cellulosic sugars the critical intermediary for second-generation biochemicals and biofuels. Bill Gates and Neo-Feudalism: A Closer Look at Farmer Bill. With more productive seeds we can avoid deforestation and help Africa deal with the climate difficulty they already face. 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. Inside Frogmore Cottage: Plush home Harry and Meghan have been 'evicted' from by King Charles boasts a roomy Sussexes' cheerleader Omid Scobie says Frogmore Cottage was Harry and Meghan's 'one remaining space in UK' A royal princess at Eton? A new report from AGRA says climate change could increase the number of malnourished people in sub-Saharan Africa from 223 million today to 355 million in 2050. The last one in this top 5 of the largest landowners is once again a large Australian farmer. And thats where the land purchases come in. Most likely, it is just one more asset in Gates vast portfolio, quietly appreciating in value while the billionaire himself remains at arms length. This boosted Bandas annual income from $50 to $750 last year. While the Gates' own a lot of farmland, nonfarmers own 283 million acres of farmland throughout the U.S. It is unclear how cheap biofuels can be but if they are cheap it can solve the aviation and truck emissions.. People are going to pay attention to what Bill is doing, Sherrick says. "Bill Gates, co-founder of . Banda has also been able to buy an ox cart and pay school fees for one of her children. The dealers also supply the seeds for legumes like soybeans and pigeon peas, which make their own fertiliser from nitrogen in the air, via bacteria in their root nodules. People want to know, Why does Bill Gates want all this land? , But hyper-wealthy people like Gates dont make every decision personally, OKeefe notes. 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. Were connecting [smallholders] to the entire business chain, says Jama. On average their farms yields have doubled (see chart below). When Ted Turner bought his Flying D Ranch in Montana in 1989, that was his personal passion, OKeefe says. However, this practice of buying up agricultural land predates Bill Gates and has been a popular investment for the super-rich since at least the early 2000s. The . The WFP has bought 450,000 tonnes of food, worth $177 million, and the scheme is set to continue. He warned us about a pandemic, he dedicates . Malone made his fortune as a media tycoon, building the company Tele-Communications, Inc, or TCI, and acting as its CEO before selling it to AT&T for $50 billion in 1999. Cascade employees almost never speak to the press. AFRICA. Malone's 2.2 million acres are largely located in Maine, New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming and include profitable cattle ranches. Public records cited by AgWeek show that the Gates-linked Red River Trust bought the farmland from the owners of Campbell Farms, a potato farming group that is headquartered in Grafton, North Dakota, which is about 50 miles from the Canadian border. Almost 300,000 acres is a lot of land for one family or private individual to own, but it's still just a small part of the estimated 911 million acres of farmland in the US. What made the difference was a boost in the productivity of her land. In the future, farmers will be paid for sustainability, says Sherrick, who sits on the groups board. The Microsoft co-founder is considered the largest private owner of farmland in the country with some 269,000 acres across dozens of states, according to last years edition of the Land Report 100, an annual survey of the nations largest landowners. AGRA has provided advice and expertise for 155 such groups in Ghana alone. Bill Gates has started laying out his plans for creating a smart city in Phoenix, Arizona, science-news outlet Futurism wrote. That means Gates, whose net worth is estimated at some $134 billion according to Forbes annual ranking of the richest people in the country, owns less than one percent of the nations total farmland. Their largest holdings are 69,071 acres in Louisiana, 47,927 acres in . 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. Farmers groups, agriculture ministers, scientists and financiers met this week at the African Green Revolution Forum in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. OKeefe knew Gates had been acquiring farmland for years, mostly through various Cascade subsidiaries. One other use for the farmland Gates has acquired is to grow crops for biofuels. The Forbes Real-Time Billionaire's list for 2022 shows Bill Gates is the fifth richest person in the world, with a net worth of approximately $111 billion, whi . It is the largest charitable foundation in the world and distributes more aid for global . Many stories focused on Gates longstanding interest in climate change and sustainability and suggested those concerns might be driving the land purchases. The program could be an economic boon for farmers. The commitment is a ten-fold increase from the foundation's . The 2,100 acre potato farm adds to his massive portfolio of farm investments. He sees Gates involvement even if indirect as crucial in encouraging the industry to embrace the new sustainability standard. So while the tech mogul certainly owns a large constellation of farms, its nowhere close to the majority nationwide. There were 895.3 million acres of farmland in America in 2021, according to a 2022 reportfrom the Department of Agriculture. That proposed superhighway would run across a 5-mile stretch of the Belmont property. Berkshire Hathaway, Inc., Waste Management, Inc., Canadian National Railway Company, Caterpillar Inc., Walmart Inc., Four Seasons Hotel and Resorts & more are the companies owned by Bill Gates. The arrangement is simple, The Wall Street Journal wrote in a 2014 profile. , said his investment group was behind the purchases, and suggested it was linked to seed and biofuel development. 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. For comparison, the state of Rhode Island covers an area of 1,214 square miles. People involved in the Gates financial empire stress that the familys philanthropic endeavors are kept separate from their investments and business ventures. Through Sierra Pacific, the family owns some 2 million acres in California and Washington. For investors who know what theyre doing, agricultural land offers financial stability in uncertain times. It isless than .1% of all US farmland because the ownership is so diverse. Bill and Melinda bought this massive mansion in the Coachella Valley for $12.5 million in 1999. AGRA has also appointed 2800 inspectors to monitor soil health and advise farmers on how much fertiliser they need. AGRAs methods are one way to do so. Wife is shocked after husband of 15 years asks for permission to have an affair: 'I don't know what to do', My Daily Horoscope: What does March 2nd hold for MY star sign? The investment companys single largest acquisition of farmland came in 2017 when it paid $520 million to purchase 61 properties from the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB). The other major problem AGRA is aiming to solve is lack of infrastructure. 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 a U.S. Department of Agriculture report from February that showed there were more than 895 million total acres of farmland in the country last year. Earlier this year, in May, claims were made that Microsoft Corp co-founder Bill Gates owned the majority of America's farmland. The financial crisis later in that same decade prompted an explosion of investments into farmland when monetary safe havens became scarce. Gates has been asked about his farmland purchases before. Most of us imagine farmers tilling the soil that has been in their families for generations. The Microsoft co-founder is considered the largest private owner of farmland in the country with some 269,000 acres across dozens of states, according to last years edition of. 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. By the end of this century there will be 4 billion more people on Earth - and 3 billion of these extra souls . Similar to private equity firms destabilizing the housing market, millionaires and billionaires investing in farmland are also creating their own set of issues, as they are now pricing out young farmers looking to buy land. But, while Belmont might not be a smart city, it still looks like a smart investment. "In terms of the very rich I think they should pay a lot more in taxes and they should give away their wealth over time. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. Today, the Belmont tract remains mostly empty desert. They give farmers more bargaining power and allows them to jointly fund communal assets, such as secure storehouses. The post says . The first necessity is fertiliser. 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 to the Associated Press. Get independent news alerts on natural cures, food lab tests, cannabis medicine, science, robotics, drones, privacy and more. And Eastern Washington has some of the richest, most expensive farmland in the country. Cost and bad infrastructure have long prevented farmers from fertilising their fields, so many African countries have been losing nutrients from their soils (see map above). AGRA was set up in 2006 by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation. 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. by Harvard Universitys Joint Center for Housing Studies. In April of this year, Reddit users had a chance to ask Gates this very question. Behind Gates in terms of investment in farmland are the cofounders of the Wonderful Company, Stewart and Lynda Resnick, with 190,000 acres. According to mainstream media outlets like the Associated Press, there's absolutely nothing to see here as the Microsoft mogul becomes the largest private owner of U.S. farmland, having acquired as many as 270,000 fertile acres. Posted by Triple Net Matt July 4, 2022 Posted in commercial real estate Tags: bill gates, commercial broker, commercial real estate, net lease, nnn, STNL. 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. As the Land Report notes, 24,800 acres of the land is transitional, located on the western edge of Phoenix, the tenth-largest metropolitan area in the country, and the most populous city in Arizona. Tagged Under: Gates, currently the sixth-richest person in the world, has a net worth of $111 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The project isnt yet funded. Gates is not new to the biofuel industry.In 2016, hejoined French oil giant Total in investing $14 million in biofuel specialist Renmatix. She has also joined a local farmers cooperative, arranged by AGRA, which hosted demonstrations of the new techniques. CLAIM: Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates owns the majority of Americas farmland and the investment firm BlackRock holds the majority of single family houses in the country. Gates has invested in Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat, two companies producing beef substitutes, including the Impossible Burger. ', Last year the couple bought an oceanfront home in Del Mar, near San Diego, California, for $43million, The six-bedroom Del Mar home boasts a ten-person jacuzzi and a swimming pool overlooking the ocean, Gates, pictured last June during a concert for COVID-19 relief, purchased the San Diego property just as the pandemic took hold in March, In 2017, Gates reportedly bought a significant stake in 24,800 acres of land outside Phoenix, Arizona, which he planned to turn into a 'smart city' with 200,000 residents. For investors who know what theyre doing, agricultural land purchases other than to say that the company is supportive! 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