Gates has invested in Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat, two companies producing beef substitutes, including the Impossible Burger. But, while Belmont might not be a smart city, it still looks like a smart investment. Which in turn means less impact on the environment. In 1999, Cascade Investment made an interesting decision: Gates sold over 7 million personal Microsoft shares to further diversify his portfolio. Partnering with Monsanto to create these super seeds is also part of the plan. The arrangement is simple, The Wall Street Journal wrote in a 2014 profile. The soil profile and underlying silty loess are in a league of their own. Pretty pricey dirt, right? However, there are also countless farmland investing platforms gaining traction now too. for different crops that have been gene edited to be pest-proof, flood proof, disease proof, and climate change-resistant. There are more than 85 million single-family homes in the country, and only around 15 million of those are rentals, according to the latest American Housing Survey by the Census Bureau. With all of this recent farmland accumulation, one might think Gates is using this land to research these gene edited super seeds. Jeff Bezos is 25th and owns about 420,000 acres of farmland. Lemmon Holdings invested in some 40 square miles of transitional land on the western fringe of the Phoenix sprawl. Weve never been one of the big institutional buyers of single family homes, BlackRock said in response to one tweet. Should we be worried about a tech giant like Bill Gates amassing this wild amount of land? 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). 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. Purchasing your own farm outright means that you are not diversified across many farms; just 1. In his annual Reddit AMA Wednesday, Gates was asked why he has bought so much farmland. from February that showed there were more than 895 million total acres of farmland in the country last year. 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. The old saying about land is they aren't making any more of it. Supply and demand? From the beginning, Cascade Investments focused on blue chip defensive stocks, including Four Seasons, Berkshire Hathaway, Coca Cola, and more. Louisiana is the. Super-crops are genetically modified seeds, crops and livestock to maximize as much yield as possible. Investment guru Michael Larson, who has worked with Gates since 1994, runs the Washington-based Cascade Investment, as well as supervising the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations nearly $50 billion endowment. However, Microsoft wasn't Bill Gates' only successful venture. Some of the wealthiest landowners including Jeff Bezos, John Malone, and Thomas Peterffy are buying up forests, ranches and farmlands across . Since its IPO in 1985, Microsoft has seen continual success. This private U.S. farmland REIT was a joint venture between Duquesne Capital Management and Goldman Sachs that launched in 2007. Gates has been asked about his farmland purchases before. 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. The Gateses largest single block of dirt was acquired in 2017: a group of farmland assets owned by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. Additionally, because the farmers don't have access to state-of-the-art agriculture tools or technology, they never maximize yield potential. Climate change, inefficient farming practices, inclement weather, and plant disease are just a few of the reasons why farms sometimes fail to maximize their true seed yield potential. We've received your submission. Biogas is a natural gas alternative that can be sourced from animal manure or algae., Future biofuel advancements could make farming more self-sustaining, environmentally friendly and more efficient.. And farmland investments are great additions to a diversified portfolio.. By Tim Gray. by Harvard Universitys Joint Center for Housing Studies. We want to be open to ideas that seem wild.. Climate change, rising automation, the ravages of climate change, virulent plant diseases, international politics and changing consumer tastes make it progressively difficult for family-owned farms to operate. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Thanks for contacting us. Ninety-six percent of everything produced in North Dakota leaves our state, said Goehring. Bill and Melinda released their latest initiative, Bill Gates Big Bet, where the Foundation states theyre betting on the major success of developing nations within the next 15 years, hoping to see more improvement than at any time in history. To see all exchange delays and terms of use, please see https://www.barchart.com/solutions/terms. Why doesnt everyone just invest in farmland then? holding off on buying and working with what I have. Is this just a regular investment move, made on a large scale? Past performance is no guarantee of future results. It isless than .1% of all US farmland because the ownership is so diverse. Investing in farmland is not as volatile as investing in traditional stocks. Along with his wife Melinda Gates, Bill owns over 268,000 acres of farmland diversified in over 19 states. ALT TEXT: Indian farmers tending to rice fields by hand. 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 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. seed technologies, super-crops and overall farming efficiencies. In emails, BlackRock spokesman Christopher Beattie told The Associated Press that the firm primarily invests in retail, office buildings, hotels and apartment complexes, rather than single-family homes, but he declined to provide a breakdown. Since his divorce, it is unclear how the assets were split up between the couple. Even in an age of rapidly encroaching automation, it isn't, and never has been, easy being a farmer. Responding to the question, Hey Bill! 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. 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. However, the Gates Foundation has been largely transparent at every level of their operations from their objectives, means, successes, and failures. (Although our researchers identified dozens of different entities that own the Gateses assets, Larson himself operates primarily through an entity called Cascade Investment LLC.). As more investors look to buy land, those who got in earlier are poised to benefit from the appreciation of the land value. In the past 20 years, the foundation has grown to hold over $48 billion. 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. Bill and Melinda Gates, who recently announced they're getting divorced and are dividing their assets, are deeply invested in American agriculture. Farmland Riches is sponsored by FarmTogether. And thats where the land purchases come in. Get the latest news and research from AFN & AgFunder in your inbox. With more productive seeds we can avoid deforestation and help Africa deal with the climate difficulty they already face. BlackRock, meanwhile, is also not the owner of the majority of single family houses in the country. The small LLC had $171 million . However, Bill Malone is an American billionaire businessman who owns over 2.2 million acres of farms, ranches, and forests in the United States. There were 895.3. Gates' interest in farmland is still strong. Youre not investing in a building that will decay over time, but the rich farmland itself. In their 2018 annual letter, 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. Bill Gates is buying up the majority of American farmland and BlackRock is buying the majority of single family houses but Im supposed to believe the biggest threat to us is Elon Musk buying Twitter? read one representative tweet thats been liked or shared on the platform more than 250,000 times. 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. 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. 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. The current best estimate is that the modern world will run out of fossil fuels, and the ability to fuel its global fossil-fuel run infrastructure, by the year 2067. People involved in the Gates financial empire stress that the familys philanthropic endeavors are kept separate from their investments and business ventures. FILE - Bill Gates attends a discussion during the 'Munich Security Conference' in Munich, Germany, Friday, Feb. 18, 2022. It is unclear how cheap biofuels can be but if they are cheap it can solve the aviation and truck emissions.. The tech mogul, who is. Much like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation uses science and technology to achieve a number of worthy goals including transitioning millions of people out of poverty, improving peoples health and well-being, and ensuring that all people have access to opportunities necessary to succeed in school and in life Cascades farmland holdings also aim to further laudable objectives. The $68.5 million that Kroenke Ranches paid was applied to Ebberss IOU. Its the first time Gates has publicly commented on land purchases made by entities associated with him and his wife Melinda since they were named as the top private owners of US farmland by acreage earlier this year. I scanned the headline for the umpteenth time and then read and reread the pertinent details. 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. afficher des publicits et des contenus personnaliss en fonction de vos profils de centres dintrt; mesurer lefficacit des publicits et contenus personnaliss; et. Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. About 60% of the farmers in Africa and Asia, almost 3 billion people, are poverty-stricken subsistence farmers. Senior Airman Dakota C. LeGrand/U.S. The landowners can include investors like Gates. Sign up for notifications from Insider! There was no public announcement, and no notice in the business press. The Gates can create worlds biggest agrifoodtech testbed but theyll need to win over farmers first. An aerial image of the Highway 565 address revealed a small metal-sided building off by itself in the woods. Farming is all of a sudden part of the solution and not just part of the problem, Sherrick adds. Arable farmland is a finite commodity, and you should invest now. This story has been shared 240,292 times. Stay up to date with what you want to know. This position in Microsoft was quickly funneled by Cascade Investment into this long term growth strategy. Prior to this in 1999, Bill sold off tons of Microsoft stock to diversify. The region west of Phoenix is booming. Then again, farmers and investors in the Mid-Columbia River market expect to pay $10,000 to $15,000 for good ground. Going forward, in line with the spirit of Leading Harvest, Cascade plans to continue to evaluate and implement new initiatives that will improve the overall sustainability of its farmland portfolio, the spokesperson revealed. Gates responded: "I own less than 1/4000 of the farmland in the US. 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. He has very competent investment managers.. Valuations of equities (stocks) are at all time highs, similar to the dot-com bubble. We've received your submission. Over time, Gates sold personal stock in Microsoft and. Gates is in 49th spot but rising. Read more here. Larson makes money, and Mr. Gates gives it away., Larson and his team are famously tight-lipped. After losing his appeal in 2006, Ebbers spent most of the rest of his life in a federal prison before being granted compassionate release by a federal judge earlier this year. In January 2021, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launched Gates Ag One, a nonprofit charitable firm. Gates also owned up to the various failures in their initiatives, and admitted that they try their best to leverage the expertise and wisdom from the community leaders present in the areas they aid. However, one cannot become a farmer without a sense of optimism. I am quite confident that Eastwoods character, Steve Everett, would have picked up the stench from this setup a mile off: a $171 million acquisition by an LLC with two employees in a metal-sided building down a dirt road off the Bayou Teche? Other questions put to Gates during his Reddit AMA session similarly touched on the sustainability of the agrifood system. 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. Many stories focused on Gates longstanding interest in climate change and sustainability and suggested those concerns might be driving the land purchases. These are a few of the reasons why savvy investors have been plowing millions of dollars into farmland on both the Oregon and the Washington sides of the Columbia River Gorge. Cascade leases the majority of its land to farmers and is committed to the safety and sustainability of both its farmland and its people, the spokesperson for Cascade Investment said. 1,539.24 acres of farmland in Champaign County for at least $16,959,677 between 2015 and 2019. Join the conversation now on LinkedIn or Twitter, or email me at [emailprotected], Foodtech exits continue to lag, but there is cause for optimism, Bell & Evans teams with Cargill, Rodale Institute to transition 50,000 farm acres to organic. Bill Gates, the billionaire founder of Microsoft, has been revealed as the biggest private owner of farmland in the US, after buying up 242,000 acres in 18 states. Larson sees to it that Gates wealth is sensibly, even conservatively, invested. The Gates Foundation isnt the entity utilizing the land, but rather just Bills family office. According to a 2014 profile of Larson in the Wall Street Journal, these investments include a substantial stake in AutoNation, hospitality interests such as the Charles Hotel in Cambridge and the Four Seasons in San Francisco, and at least 100,000 acres of farmland in California, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, and other states . 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. James B. Meigs is the co-host of the How Do We Fix It? podcast and the former editor-in-chief of Popular Mechanics. The group is called Leading Harvest, and the Gates-linked Cottonwood Ag is one of its founding members. Not surprisingly, one of Leading Harvests other inaugural members is a Cascade entity called Cottonwood Ag Management. For investors who know what theyre doing, agricultural land offers financial stability in uncertain times. Farmlands will only become more automated in the future. Former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates owns a majority of America's farmland. the latest American Housing Survey by the Census Bureau. (AP Photo/Michael Probst, File ), Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. And for those wondering why exactly Gates has taken a keen interest in investing in farmland across the country, look no farther than the profit margins. Biofuels are renewable fuel sources that are created from the biomass of animals and plants. But the purchaser of record was a small, obscure company in Louisiana. Please consult with your legal and financial advisors before investing and do not invest unless you are able to sustain the risk of loss of your entire investment. Land Income. These subsistence farmers can order equipment and seeds they need, paying what they can over a longer period of time. Without innovation, we will not solve climate change, Gates said. Additionally, these small-scale, developing country farms serve local communities. Goehring, however, reiterated the legality of owning farmland in the United States. Does this investment say anything about the state of the. 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. "Why are you buying up so much farmland, do you think this is a problem with billionaire wealth and how much you can disproportionally acquire?" Corporations own the other 3% and rent land or buy many of the crops owned by the 97%. Nous, Yahoo, faisons partie de la famille de marques Yahoo. 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. In 1998, when he was the toast of Wall Street, the telecom cowboy paid British Columbias Woodward family the astronomical sum of $73 million for Canadas largest ranch: 500,000-acre Douglas Lake, a 22,000-head cattle operation. The acreage sits off Interstate 10, and it is poised to be accessible by Interstate 11, a proposed highway that would traverse 5 miles of the 40-square-mile holding. All told, the 2017 acquisition of AgCoA and the 2018 acquisition of the 100 Circles tract in the Horse Heaven Hills of eastern Washington total an investment in farmland assets of more than $690 million. But many farmers lease at least some of the land they cultivate. There will be incentives for things like using less water, fewer chemicals, and storing more carbon. The firm is a shareholder in Dallas-based Invitation Homes, which owns nearly 80,000 single-family rentals nationwide. Here are the top farmlands in ND. Though the Gates Foundation has spent so much time and resources on helping humanity more than any other private entity in history the sheer power their enterprise wields has drawn the attention and fear of many. 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.