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Is Bill Gates the largest farmland owner in America?

Wednesday, May 4, 2022
By Jacob Alabab-Moser
YES

Bill Gates is the largest owner of farmland in the U.S., with holdings totaling 242,000 acres, according to The Land Report and NBC News. He also owns 25,750 acres of transitional land and 1,234 acres of recreational land. Gates began acquiring farmland in 2013. The value of his assets is estimated at $690 million.

His farmland has been used to grow traditional crops, such as soybeans, corn, cotton and rice. Gates has made few public statements about his farmland, but clarified that his investment group was behind the decision to acquire farmland, and that it is not related to his philanthropic efforts to combat climate change.

There are 1.29 billion acres of private agricultural land in the U.S. As of December 2020, Chinese investors own 191,652 acres—less than 0.05% of foreign-held agricultural land in the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

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