{"id":127071,"date":"2021-09-01T19:36:18","date_gmt":"2021-09-02T02:36:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2021\/09\/why-bill-gates-is-buying-up-u-s-farmland"},"modified":"2021-09-01T19:36:18","modified_gmt":"2021-09-02T02:36:18","slug":"why-bill-gates-is-buying-up-u-s-farmland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2021\/09\/why-bill-gates-is-buying-up-u-s-farmland","title":{"rendered":"Why Bill Gates Is Buying Up U.S. Farmland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"display: block; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 4\/3; object-fit: contain;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MJVL9HegCr4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;\n   picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Bill Gates made headlines for becoming the largest private farmland owner in the U.S. But he\u2019s not the only one. Some of the wealthiest landowners including Jeff Bezos, John Malone and Thomas Peterffy are buying up forests, ranches and farmlands across the United States. Why? Watch the video to find out.<\/p>\n<p>Investments in farmland are growing across the country as people, including the ultra-wealthy like Bill Gates, look for new ways to grow their money.<\/p>\n<p>In 2,020 Gates made headlines for becoming the largest private farmland owner in the U.S. He had accumulated more than 269,000 acres of farmland across 18 states in less than a decade. His farmland grows onions, carrots and even the potatoes that are used to make McDonald\u2019s French fries.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s an asset with increasing value,\u201d American Farmland Trust CEO John Piotti said. \u201cIt has great intrinsic value and beyond that, it is a limited resource.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that 30% of all farmland is owned by landlords who don\u2019t farm themselves. Buyers often purchase land from farmers who have owned it for decades; many of whom may be asset rich but maybe cash poor.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe economic realities for them are typical that they\u2019ve spent their life farming,\u201d said Holly Rippon-Butler, land campaign director at the National Young Farmers Coalition. \u201cTheir retirement, their equity is all in the land and tied up in selling land.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"more-link-wrapper\"> <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2021\/09\/why-bill-gates-is-buying-up-u-s-farmland\">Continue reading \u201cWhy Bill Gates Is Buying Up U.S. Farmland\u201d | &gt;<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bill Gates made headlines for becoming the largest private farmland owner in the U.S. But he\u2019s not the only one. Some of the wealthiest landowners including Jeff Bezos, John Malone and Thomas Peterffy are buying up forests, ranches and farmlands across the United States. Why? Watch the video to find out. Investments in farmland are [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":417,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,1506,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-food","category-sustainability"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/417"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127071\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}