It is not connected to climate. Thats because the old adage goes: Buy landthey arent making it anymore. (Which volcanologists know isnt exactly true, but you get the idea). Farming is all of a sudden part of the solution and not just part of the problem, Sherrick adds. In reality, the idea that Bill Gates was single-handedly reinventing farming or designing cities of tomorrow was almost entirely speculation. 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 moguls holdings include large tracts in Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, California, and about a dozen other states. AGRA was established in 2006 by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation. He said he did so to make the farms "more productive" and "create more jobs," adding that it was his investment team that made the decision. Forty percent of all children in sub-Saharan Africa are stunted. In the future, farmers will be paid for sustainability, says Sherrick, who sits on the groups board. And in Africa, there's a particularly prominent initiative driving corporate agriculture's agenda Bill Gates's Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). We wont even come close.. *According to figures compiled by The Land Report in 2019. Couple find note in chimney that reveals their 290,000 house was 100 times cheaper 50 years ago. Ive gotten a big earful on this from clear across the state, its not even from that neighborhood, said Goehring. With the Washington state acreage and other recent additions to his portfolio, O'Keefe calculated, Gates now owns at least 242,000 acres of American farmland. Gates owns a 4.5 acre ranch in Wellington, Florida. THREE years ago, Lucy Banda and her six children lived in a two-room house made of soil dampened and tamped into a dome, with just one bedroom and a living room. Last year, her maize output was eight cartloads, while the soybean harvest soared to 37 bags. One of the more colorful theories pertains to Gatess strange interest in U.S. agriculture, with rumors that the former Microsoft CEO owns upward of 80 percent of farmland in the United States. The entity shares the same address as Campbell Farms. Gates is not the only billionaire on The Land Report 's list of top private farmland owners. When fully developed the area could be home to 200,000 residents and be similar in size to the Phoenix suburb of Tempe, The Land Report said. Leading Harvest envisions a kind of sustainability seal of approval certifying that a given farm meets environmental standards. Larson sees to it that Gates wealth is sensibly, even conservatively, invested. The family's 1.7 million acres of land are primarily spread across Washington, Oregon, and California. Gates . And the Belmont property is located along Interstate 10, the regions major east-west artery, making it an excellent location for Amazon-style warehouse complexes. Gates and his wife paid almost $171 million for 14,500 acres of farmland in the Horse Heaven Hills of Benton County, Wash., according to The Land Report. P4P aims to link the smallholder farmers explicitly into the process. But if it ever gets built, it would boost the value of Gates land dramatically. He now owns more farmland than my entire Native American nation The Prestigious school where Princes William and Harry were educated is EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE: Prince William's potentially awkward visit to homelessness charity. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced an immediate commitment of up to $100 million for coronavirus relief on Wednesday. BlackRock also suggested it was being confused for the similarly-named investment management firm Blackstone, which until recently owned Invitation Homes. The post says . AGRA was set up in 2006 by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation. One other use for the farmland Gates has acquired is to grow crops for biofuels. The six-bed Del Mar home, which boasts a ten-person jacuzzi and swimming pool overlooking the ocean, was bought by the couple in late Marchas the international coronavirus pandemic began to take hold. 5. By the end of this century there will be 4 billion more people on Earth - and 3 billion of these extra souls . African smallholders are often isolated, unable to get credit or find buyers for their produce. The Foundation has nearly 40 million shares of Berkshire Hathaway which has a market value of over $7 billion. The Land Report reference came out in winter 2021, after which controversies circulated about Gates' accumulation of American farmland. In his new book, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster, Gates explains why raising beef cattle causes more harmful emissions than other forms of agriculture. Kroenke is married to Ann Walkton Kroenke, an heiress to the Wal-Mart fortune. It is unclear how cheap biofuels can be but if they are cheap it can solve the aviation and truck emissions, Gates wrote, responding to a question in Ask Me Anything (AMA) session on social media platform Reddit in March. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Thanks for contacting us. He sees Gates involvement even if indirect as crucial in encouraging the industry to embrace the new sustainability standard. 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. Gates is not new to the biofuel industry.In 2016, hejoined French oil giant Total in investing $14 million in biofuel specialist Renmatix. That proposed superhighway would run across a 5-mile stretch of the Belmont property. . 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. We've received your submission. Were connecting [smallholders] to the entire business chain, says Jama. She has also joined a local farmers cooperative, arranged by AGRA, which hosted demonstrations of the new techniques. Gates who stepped down from day-to-day involvement with Microsoft in 2008 has long been looking for ways to help the worlds poorest and to address the planets environmental challenges. Of those rentals, less than a third are owned by non-individual investors, according to a 2022 report by Harvard Universitys Joint Center for Housing Studies. 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. The 65-year-old's largest holdings include 69,071 acres in Louisiana, 47,927 acres in Arkansas,25,750 acres in Arizona, 20,588 acres in Nebraska and16,097 in Washington state. That makes him the largest landowner in the U.S. Stats show agriculture is a pretty good investment for billionaires. 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.. Making farming a business is the way to push African agriculture, says Robert Guei of the FAO in Rome, Italy. Mr. Sign up for notifications from Insider! This parcel apparently makes up the bulk of the billionaire couples farmland holdings. The couple also snapped up an oceanfront home in San Diego County, California, last year, for a record making $43 million. 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. But it also means we can devote less of the planets surface to farmland, which is good news for forests and ecosystems. The tech billionaire, 65, owns 242,000 acres of agricultural land in 18 states His largest holdings are in Louisiana, Arkansas, Arizona and Nebraska; Gates owns total of 268,984 acres of land of . The tech mogul, who is the fourth richest person in the world with a . The couples acquired farmlandisowned through a private investment company Cascade Investment.This company also owns shares in plant-based protein companies Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, as well as agricultural equipment maker John Deere. Whether or not Gates personally directed Cottonwood Ag to get involved in the Leading Harvest project, the move makes both environmental and business sense. In a 2020 blog post, he wrote, "The rich should pay more than they currently do, and that includes Melinda and me.". With the Washington state acreage and other recent additions to his portfolio, OKeefe calculated, Gates now owns at least 242,000 acres of American farmland. The same Gates Foundation which is behind every aspect of the COVID-19 pandemic from financing much of the WHO budget, to investing in favored vaccine-makers like Moderna, is engaged in a major project in Africa which is destroying traditional small farmer production of essential food crops in favor of monoculture crops and introduction of expensive chemical fertilizers and GMO seeds that are . "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?" Many believe unhinged conspiracy theorists fuel the trend. , said his investment group was behind the purchases, and suggested it was linked to seed and biofuel development. Healthy mother-of-two, 32, collapsed and died from brain bleed while she led fitness bounce class. Introduction. Between 2006 and 2015, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation allocated over $424 million to the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). There will be incentives for things like using less water, fewer chemicals, and storing more carbon. His magazine, The Land Report, tracks major land transactions and produces an annual list of the 100 biggest US landowners. 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 The 2,100 acre potato farm adds to his massive portfolio of farm investments. Some experts have pointed to Gatess well-known sustainability and green tech initiatives as a possible reason, but during an earlier Reddit AMA in 2021, Gates said, my investment group chose to do this. 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. 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. Gates has invested in Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat, two companies producing beef substitutes, including the Impossible Burger. According to the Journal, they are even discouraged from using Facebook and other social-media platforms. Today, Bill Gates owns 242,000 acres of farmland in 19 states. The acquisitions are held directly, as well as through Gates' personal investment entity, Cascade Investments. FILE - Bill Gates attends a discussion during the 'Munich Security Conference' in Munich, Germany, Friday, Feb. 18, 2022. 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. On average their farms yields have doubled (see chart below). Farms also have a role in fighting climate change. Bill Gates is one of the richest men in the world, but his wealth pales in comparison to that of other billionaires. 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. Although nowhere near 80 percent of U.S. farmland, its still a little more than one-third of the state of Rhode Island, a surprising amount for one person and enough to make Gates the largest landowner in the U.S. I have invested in these farms to make them more productive and create more jobs. The fund recently raised $1 billion, which it is pouring into companies developing hydrogen-fueled airplanes, zero-carbon building materials, and other green innovations. The agriculture sector is important, he wrote. In a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) last week, Gates once again fielded a question pertaining to his AG holdings and stated that he actually only owns 1/4000 of all U.S. farmland, or about 270,000 acres spread across 18 different states. Last year, Gates vowed to give away "virtually all" of his fortune to the philanthropic foundation he runs with French Gates. Climate change is happening, and we must use all best practices to allow farmers to adapt. A 6,300-acre farm owned by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates near Columbus could be developed into one of the nation's biggest solar energy sites. Behind Gates in terms of investment in farmland are the cofounders of the Wonderful Company, Stewart and Lynda Resnick, with 190,000 acres. (Related:Why is Bill Gates buying up farmland across America?). He also bought farmland in Washington state in 2018, The farmland was bought by the couple, pictured at Lincoln Center in New York in 2017, mostly through their investment company, Cascade Investments, and is not connected to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which also works to help support farming. If the nations largest farmland owner can show that farming can be both sustainable and profitable, that will make a big difference. 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. Less rain will be a major factor . 5. This article will go into detail about how much land Bill Gates owns and why he owns so much. Bill Gates, whose house in the Medina area of Seattle is pictured, has built up a diverse property portfolio over the years. Bill Gates and conspiracy theories go together like peanut butter and jelly. STEPHEN 'What sentimental tosh!' Larson also makes sure Gates keeps his eggs in a wide variety of baskets. In 2006, African governments pledged to inject 10 per cent of their spending into agriculture, says Ameyaw. In fact, he reportedly owns more farmland than any other individual in America. Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group. How Much Land Does Bill Gates Own In Africa? Gates, currently the sixth-richest person in the world, has a net worth of $111 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. What is the Venus-Jupiter conjunction and how can you view it? Why Bill Gates Keeps Buying Up So Much Farmland, Particle Accelerator Reveals Beginning of Time, Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads. Late last year, Eric OKeefe was researching a mysterious recent purchase of 14,500 acres of prime Washington state farmland. The company is the largest producer of wool in Australia. Farmland in those parts is valuable, commanding prices between $10,000 and $15,000 per acre, far beyond the state average of about $2,000. ', 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 his Reddit AMA last year, one user said, "What do you plan to do with all the farmland you have purchased? The new green economy will mean new opportunities for land owners, OKeefe believes. In that same Reddit AMA from 2021, the one where Gates separated his land investments from his sustainability initiatives, he also mentioned the importance of productive seeds to avoid deforestation as well as the production of biofuels, which relies heavily on corn, in the very same answer. Newhouse raised his concerns about Chinese land ownership as he proposed an amendment in a new agricultural appropriations bill, H.R. That removes a major way for actual farm operators to . Amazing, if truebut its extremely not. A single square mile contains 640 acres. (AP Photo/Michael Probst, File ), Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. Over the past three years she has trebled her farms output and increased her income 15-fold (see A life transformed). U.S. Census Bureau data shows fewer than 20% of such properties are rentals, and the vast majority of those are owned by individual investors, not institutional investors like BlackRock. The comments below have not been moderated. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. Were predicting a decline of 20 to 40 per cent in rainfall across West Africa, says David Sarfo Ameyaw of AGRA. Informations sur votre appareil et sur votre connexion Internet, y compris votre adresseIP, Navigation et recherche lors de lutilisation des sites Web et applications Yahoo. The threat of climate change means smallholders must keep adapting if they are to survive and prosper, says Guei. 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. 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. Groups of 15 to 25 smallholders are also being encouraged to form collectives. This is part of a broader 269,000-acre land portfolio belonging to the couple and associated entities across 19 states, with the largest holdings in Louisiana (69,071 acres), Arkansas (47,927 acres) and Arizona (25,750 acres). Since 2017 he reportedly holds a significant stake in 24,800 acres of land on the west side of Phoenix. BILL Gates' $80billion property empire now hangs in the balance after he and his wife of 27 years announced they are divorcing.Properties up for grabs. In 2018 Gates reportedly bought about 16,000 acres in his home state of Washington, including a 14,500-acre tract in the Horse Heaven Hills region that was purchased for nearly $171 million from an insurance company that had paid $75million for it in 2010. As of 2020, industry reports show he owned about 0.027% of U.S. farmland. That means Bill Gates owns 378 square miles of the United States. ITS like having a new life, says Lucy Banda, a farmer in Mwambaso village in western Malawi. 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For coronavirus relief on Wednesday 14,500 acres of prime Washington state farmland idea that Bill Gates 378. Has acquired is to grow crops for biofuels come close.. * According to figures compiled by the and.
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