Posted on 06/30/2022 8:44:21 PM PDT by algore
Bill Gates has secured legal approval for the controversial purchase of thousands of acres of prime North Dakota farmland, after the deal drew fury from the state's residents.
The state's Republican Attorney General Drew Wrigley had inquired into the land sale, and on Wednesday issued a letter saying the transaction complied with an archaic anti-corporate farming law.
The Depression-era law prohibits corporations or limited liability companies from owning farmland or ranchland, but allows individual trusts to own the land if it is leased to farmers, which Gates intends to do.
Gates is the largest private owner of farmland in America after quietly amassing some 270,000 acres across dozens of states, according to last year's edition of the Land Report 100, an annual survey of the nation's largest landowners.
However, the billionaire's holdings make up only about 1 percent of the nearly 900 million total farm acres in the U.S.
The purchase of the land in North Dakota had raised legal questions as well as concerns that ultrarich landowners do not share the state's values.
Gates' firm, Red River Trust, purchased $13.5 million worth of land in two counties from wealthy northeastern North Dakota potato growers Campbell Farms.
About 2100 acres of land were sold in the deal, AgWeek reported.
In a curious move, the Campbell family in February filed a partnership name certificate with the North Dakota secretary of state naming their farming operation the Red River Trust - the same name as Gates' firm.
But an attorney for Gates' firm wrote to the attorney general´s office that the Campbells registered the name without his knowledge.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
I guess lots of $$$$$$$$$ can and will lubricate the wheels of justice.
on a related Gates note, most people have not ever seen this documentary which has nothing to do with Bill gates, but is an interesting perspective regardless
https://www.highaltitudefilms.tv/editing/united-gates-of-america
Who did he give $10 million to?
Why earn money if you can’t spend it how you want? While I don’t like a lot of Bill Gates objectives, I can’t as a conservative find a reason to stop him from buying land with his money. To me that is what America is about.
270,000/900,000,000 does not equal 1% - it is more like 0.3%. The writer apparently flunked fourth-grade math.
He allegedly spent it in a way that was illegal in that state.
Certainly he should be able to spend his money legally.
I was mostly just surprised at how quickly this complicated legal matter was resolved
Plus, it isn’t like he’s snatching the land from a bunch of little farmers. It was already owned by a single enterprise.
As an aside, I’ve heard that the Royal Family owns thousands of acres of land in the US, under hush-hush conditions.
There’s probably oil or coal underground.
Think Monsanto and their seeds. When their seeds fell off their trucks, they would sue little farmers and bankrupt them and buy up the land.
Bill Gates also operates like that.
Taking productive farm/ranch land out of production?
If that is Gate’s motive?
“He allegedly spent it in a way that was illegal in that state.”
Why would it be illegal to spent his money how he wants? My initial bias is against the state for blocking an American for spending his money to buy land. If he wants to corner a market, that is why he has his money.
“Taking productive farm/ranch land out of production?”
If he has the money to buy the land that should be his choice, IMHO.
Now just force a demand for the product.
You will eat only Potatoes and YOU will be happy.
Does bill even know how to operate a tractor?
It’s all over the market. He intends to create new farms run 24/7 by Ai, balancing ph levels and nutrients in soil. As well as other types of indoor growing.
Bill greased a lot of palms I'd say.
I wonder how many slaves he plans on lend-leasing to???
I still remember how the landowners worked the Leasor’s like slaves in the southern states after the civil war.
Arrest, prosecute, convict and execute Bill Gates for crimes against humanity.
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