Billion Gates, a billionaire and co-founder of Microsoft, owns 242,000 acres of farmland, making him the largest owner in America. His investment in farming may be related to his investments in developments in agriculture and climate change and Impossible Foods, a company that develops plant substitutes for meat products.
According to Gates’ 242,000 acres of farmland, it contains at least 100,000 acres of farmland in California, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, and 15 other states. Wall Street Journal profile of Michael Larson. Larson, who manages Gates’ personal portfolio and owns the philanthropic Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, helped coordinate land purchases as one way to diversify the couple’s lucrative investments away from technology.
In 2017, Gates bought $ 520 million in U.S. agricultural land owned by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board through the acquisition of the Agricultural Company of America in 2013, a real estate investment trust that Duquesne Capital Management and Goldman Sachs launched in 2007. sent, according to Ground report.
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Gates now owns agricultural land in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming. Its five largest farm businesses are 69,071 acres in Louisiana, 47,927 acres in Arkansas, 25,750 acres in Arizona, 20,588 acres in Nebraska and 14,828 acres in Florida.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s initiatives include Gates Ag One, which focuses on research to ‘adapt small farmers to climate change and make food production in low- and middle-income countries more productive, resilient and sustainable.’ The initiative will also seek to spread its sustainable farming methods over as many areas as possible.
Gates has also invested millions in Impossible Foods, a company whose plant meat products are made from soy and potato protein but look and taste like sausage and mince. The products also contain iron and protein amounts that are comparable to their meat equivalents, but have no cholesterol and are gluten-free.
The products are now sold in Trader Joe’s and other grocery stores, in 2,100 Walmarts across the U.S. and in 5,000 locations, including eateries and fast food outlets such as Little Caesar’s Pizza, White Castle and Burger King.
In 2019, Pat Brown, CEO of Impossible Foods, said the company was engaged in a plant-based steak and told the food technology website The Spoon: ‘If we can make a world-class delicious steak … it will be very disruptive only for the beef industry but for other sectors of the meat industry. ‘
Given that the industrial beef industry is a $ 3 billion enterprise and the effects that climate change will have on agriculture worldwide, Gates’ farming could play an important but disruptive role in the global future of both.
Newsweek contacted the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for comment.