Potatoes for McDonald’s fries are grown on Bill Gates’ farmland in fields so big you can see them from space
These are just a few of the numerous crops growing across America on the veritable agricultural empire belonging to Bill and Melinda Gates, who, with more than 269,000 acres to their name, are the biggest owners of farmland in the country. They’ve got so much of it, you can see one of their Washington farms from space.
The couple, who are now in the midst of a divorce, which will include dividing their mammoth fortune, business, and philanthropic endeavours, own land in at least 18 states, purchased through a series of at least 22 different limited liability shell companies.
They’ve got 70,000 acres of soybeans, corn, cotton, and rice in Louisiana; 20,000 more of soybeans in Nebraska; and 14,000 acres in Washington, including potato fields supplying McDonalds.
While it might come as a shock to some that the Gateses have such massive farm holdings, agricultural land is being increasingly viewed as an investment commodity. More than 50 percent of farmers don’t own the land they till, and the price of crop acreage has doubled between the mid 1990s and today, to nearly $3000 an acre.
