Bill Gates may no longer be the richest man in the world, but he may claim a new title: the king of America’s farmland.
The co-founder of billionaire Microsoft has become the largest owner of agricultural land in the United States, quietly buying massive plots in the county, according to a new report.
Gates’ portfolio includes about 242,000 acres of farmland and nearly 27,000 acres of other land in 19 states, according to The Land Report, a magazine for land investors that tracks the nation’s largest landowners.
The largest chunks of Gates’ farms are in Louisiana and Arkansas, where he owns 69,071 acres and 47,927 acres, respectively, media research found.
He also owns about 16,000 acres in his home state of Washington, including a 14,500-acre tract in the Horse Heaven Hills region that was bought for nearly $ 171 million.
The land is owned, both directly and indirectly, by Cascade Investment, the Seattle-based company that Gates – the world’s third-richest man with a net worth of $ 132 billion, according to Bloomberg. to manage his massive fortune, according to The Land Report.
An allusion to Gates’ huge farms appeared in a 2014 Wall Street Journal profile of Michael Larson, the money manager who serves as Cascade’s investment director. The piece said the company owns “at least 100,000 acres of farmland in California, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana and other states – or an area seven times larger than Manhattan.”
It is not certain why Gates invested in so much farmland or how his tractors are currently used. Cascade did not immediately respond to a phone message on Friday, and the company declined to comment on The Land Report, “except that Cascade strongly supports sustainable agriculture,” the press said.
Agriculture is also a key area for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the massive charity run by Gates and his wife. The foundation aims to “support inclusive country-led agricultural transformation in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia,” according to its website.
While Gates is the largest owner of agricultural land in America, he is far from being the largest owner of the nation in general. The crown belongs to Liberty Media President John Malone, who owns 2.2 million acres, according to The Land Report.
This article was first published on NYPost.com