Bill Gates has obtained legal approval for the contentious acquisition of thousands of acres of great farmland in North Dakota, despite opposition from the state’s citizens.
After looking into the land sale, the state’s Republican attorney general Drew Wrigley wrote a letter on Wednesday stating that the transaction was legal and in compliance with an old anti-corporate agricultural statute.
The law from the Great Depression forbids corporations or limited liability companies from owning ranches or farms, but individual trusts are permitted to do so provided the land is leased to farmers, as Gates wants to do.
According to the Land Report 100, an annual study of the country’s wealthiest landowners, Gates is the largest private owner of farmland in America after discretely accumulating some 270,000 acres spanning dozens of states.
The billionaire’s holdings, however, only account for a tiny fraction of the over 900 million farm acres in the United States.
The purchase of the property in North Dakota had sparked legal issues as well as worries that landowners who are extremely wealthy do not uphold the state’s values.
Rich northern North Dakota potato growers Campbell Farms sold their holdings in two counties to Gates’ company, Red River Trust, for $13.5 million.
According to AgWeek, 2100 acres of land were sold in the transaction.
In an odd move, the Campbell family named their farm the Red River Trust, the same name as Gates’ company, in a partnership name certificate they submitted to the North Dakota secretary of state in February.
The Campbells registered the name without Gates’ knowledge, according to a letter to the attorney general’s office from a lawyer for Gates’ company.
Republican Doug Goehring, the agriculture commissioner for North Dakota, previously stated that many people believe the ultra-rich, who purchase land but may not necessarily share the state’s ideals, are taking advantage of them.
Goehring told KFYR-TV, “I’ve gotten a tremendous earful on this from clear across the state, it’s not even from that community.” “Those folks are sad, but some people are absolutely furious about this,” others said.
If the land is required “for residential or commercial development; the siting of buildings, plants, facilities, industrial parks, or similar business or industrial purposes of the corporation or limited liability company; or for uses supportive of or ancillary to adjacent non-agricultural land for the benefit of both land parcels,” the law exempts corporations from the ownership restriction.
It’s not the first time a law from 1932 has been put to the test.
After a conservative farm organization contended that the legislation restricts producers’ economic options and impedes interstate commerce by forbidding out-of-state firms from participating in North Dakota’s agricultural sector, a federal judge in 2018 upheld the bill’s constitutionality.
Governor of North Dakota and Republican Doug Burgum declined to comment on the farmland transaction. Burgum is a former Microsoft executive whose campaign received $100,000 from Microsoft co-founder Gates when Burgum first won in 2016.
When asked about the anti-corporate agricultural law that he and the Legislature revised in 2019 to include second cousins in the mix of ownership, the Republican governor remained neutral.
According to Burgum spokesman Mike Nowatzki, “The governor strongly supports family farms and is open to discussions about cutting red tape that disadvantages North Dakota farmers compared to farmers in neighboring states and ensuring that our ranchers and farmers can succeed and grow their operations, helping rural communities to thrive.”
Gates already has a sizable portfolio of land.
His major holdings in the United States as of 2021 comprised 69,071 acres in Louisiana, 47,927 acres in Arkansas, 25,750 acres in Arizona, 20,588 acres in Nebraska, and 16,097 acres in the state of Washington.
However, even then, Gates didn’t place among the top 100 private landowners in the United States when taking into account owners of all sorts of land, not only agricultural land.
The head of Liberty Media and American businessman John Malone, who owns 2.2 million acres, holds the record for the country’s greatest landholdings.
While on a superyacht holiday in Turkey in November, Gates is also said to have looked for “hundreds of acres of farmland.”
He purportedly desired to establish a sizable, sustainable farm in the nation. It is unknown if he ultimately bought the property.