Image Source : AP Bill Gates is America’s greatest farmland proprietor
Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates owns the most important chunk of personal farmland within the US throughout 18 states, a brand new report has revealed. Bill and Melinda Gates amassed 242,000 acres of land within the US, with the most important holdings in Louisiana (69,071 acres), Arkansas (47,927 acres) and Nebraska (20,588 acres), in response to The Land report.
Bill Gates additionally owns a stake in additional than 24,800 acres of transitional land exterior of Phoenix.
Research indicated that the lands throughout the US is held by Cascade Investment LLC, Gates’ non-public funding automobile.
“Gates also backs online used-car seller Vroom through Cascade as well as the Canadian National Railway Company,” Geek Wire reported.
According to the Tri-City Herald, a 14,500-acre swath of alternative Eastern Washington farmland within the Horse Heaven Hills in Benton County has simply traded palms for nearly $171 million – a part of Gates’ holdings.
It is unclear why Gates has invested so closely in farmland, however it could possibly be related to local weather change.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launched a brand new nonprofit group a 12 months in the past, targeted on serving to small-scale farmers in creating international locations with the instruments and improvements they will have to take care of the consequences of local weather change.
Bill Gates is at the moment on the third spot on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index with a web value of $132 billion.
But even together with his large new agricultural holdings, Gates nonetheless does not rank within the Top 100 non-public landowners general within the US, contemplating homeowners of land of every kind.
The checklist is topped by Liberty Media’s John Malone, with 2.2 million acres of ranches and forests. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos makes that checklist at No. 25 with 420,000 acres.
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