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   Bill Gates = largest private farmland owner in the US   
      
   Potatoes for McDonald?s fries are grown on Bill Gates? farmland in fields so   
   big you can see them from space.   
      
   https://tinyurl.com/b226xdbd   
      
   Potatoes for McDonald?s french fries. Carrots for the world?s largest   
   producer. Onions at the grocery store.   
      
   These are just a few of the numerous crops growing across America on the   
   veritable agricultural empire belonging to Bill and Melinda Gates, who, with   
   more than 269,000 acres to their name, are the biggest owners of farmland in   
   the country. They?ve got so much of it, you can see one of their Washington   
   farms from space.   
      
   The couple, who are now in the midst of a divorce, which will include dividing   
   their mammoth fortune, business, and philanthropic endeavours, own land in at   
   least 18 states, purchased through a series of at least 22 different limited   
   liability shell companies.   
      
   They?ve got 70,000 acres of soybeans, corn, cotton, and rice in Louisiana;   
   20,000 more of soybeans in Nebraska; and 14,000 acres in Washington, including   
   potato fields supplying McDonalds.   
      
   While it might come as a shock to some that the Gateses have such massive farm   
   holdings, agricultural land is being increasingly viewed as an investment   
   commodity. More than 50 percent of farmers don?t own the land they till, and   
   the price of crop acreage has doubled between the mid 1990s and today, to   
   nearly $3000 an acre.   
      
   Financial firms like Prudential and Hancock have specific divisions for   
   investing in the more than 283 million acres of farmland owned and rented by   
   nonfarmers.   
      
   ?Farmers just aren?t owning the assets anymore. Someone else is owning that   
   asset, whether it?s rented equipment or land. Someone else is building that   
   equity on their back,? Johnathan Hladik, the policy director at the Center for   
   Rural Affairs, told NBC News, which investigated the Microsoft founder?s land   
   holdings. ?When Bill Gates, or whatever other investment arm owns the land, a   
   farmer still needs to farm it. But they?re just renting it. So if now the best   
   farmers can do if you want to stay in farming is rent this land, you?re not   
   going to get the benefits that come with land ownership.?   
      
   There are also climate concerns. Mr Gates has previously said the farm   
   activity is a business endeavor, separate from his climate change   
   philanthropy, though he has noted his farms are part of sustainability   
   initiatives surrounding soil health in their own right.   
      
   US agriculture makes up more than 10 per cent of the country?s total carbon   
   emissions, according to the USDA, and no one personally has more agriculture   
   in their portfolio than the Gates family.    
      
   The Gateses aren?t the only climate-minded billionaires with massive land   
   holdings. Outgoing Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is the 25th biggest landholder in the   
   US.   
      
   Ciao!   
    /|ug (https://t.me/aabolins)   
      
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