Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has bought 98,000 hectares of private farmland in the US, making him the country's largest farm owner.

For several years, word spread that Gates was buying farmland in Florida and Washington. The well-known Microsoft founder is the fourth richest person in the world thanks to a net worth of $ 120.2 billion, according to the Forbes' Real-Time Billionaires list.

The Land Report had already confirmed that Gates had acquired agricultural land in 19 states across the country. The largest estates of it are in Louisiana (28,000 hectares), Arkansas (19,000 hectares) and Nebraska (8,000 hectares). In addition, the billionaire owns 10,000 transitional acres in the western part of the city of Phoenix, Arizona, which is becoming a new suburb.

According to the investigation of the American magazine, some of these lands are directly owned by Gates, while most of these estates are in the name of his investment company Cascade Investment. He invests in companies such as food safety conglomerate Ecolab, used car retailer Vroom, and Canadian National Railway, among others.
It is not the first time that Microsoft's father has taken an interest in agriculture. In 2008, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced that it would allocate $ 306 million in grants to promote sustainable and productive agriculture among small farmers in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

The organization invested in the production of climate-resistant supercrops and in raising higher-yielding dairy cows. In 2020 the foundation launched an agricultural land project called Gates Ag One, dedicated to research in this area.

Details about Gates' use of the land are unknown, says Forbes journalist Ariel Shapiro. However, there are indications that the land could be used at the foundation's values, she emphasizes. Cottonwood Ag Management, a subsidiary of Cascade, is a member of Leading Harvest, a non-profit organization that promotes sustainable agriculture that prioritizes the protection of farmland, soil and water resources.

Source: https://mundo.sputniknews.com/america_del_norte/202101161094136301-bill-gates-ahora-es-el-mayor-propietario-de-tierras-de-cultivo-de-eeuu/

 

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