The Attorney General of North Dakota has sounded the alarm, sending a letter Tuesday asking Red River Trust, part of Bill Gates’ circle of affiliates, to prove the company’s land use does not violate the state’s Corporate Farming Laws.
Red River Trust recently acquired six large parcels of land in Pembina County.
“I’ve gotten a big earful on this from clear across the state, it’s not even from that neighborhood,” Agricultural Commissioner Doug Goehring, according to Valley News Live. “Those people are upset, but there are others that are just livid about this.”
The letter stipulated that under North Dakota law, there are “certain limitations on the ability of trusts to own farmland or ranchland.”
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“The Corporate or Limited Liability Company Farming Law has certain exceptions, such as permitting registered family farms or allowing the use of the land for business purposes,” the letter continued.
The Attorney General’s letter notes that corporations in violation of the laws will have a year to divest themselves of the land and are subject to a civil fine of $100,000.
“Our office needs to confirm how your company uses this land and whether this use meets any of the statutory exceptions, such as business purpose exceptions, such as the business purpose exception, so that we may close this case and file it in our inactive files,” the letter continued.
According to the Daily Mail, Bill Gates is the largest farmland owner in the nation, owning 242,000 acres across 18 states as of January 2021.
Claims have circulated that Gates owns the bulk of the country’s farmland. The Associated Press debunked the claim in a “fact check” last month, often used to spin the truth. However, the AP reported that the billionaire is the single largest farmland owner in the U.S.
Gates has confirmed that the investment group buys land on his behalf to develop seeds and biofuel. His purchases have become the subject of numerous conspiracy theories.
In 2021, Gates was named by The Land Report as the top private owners of American farmland by area thanks to 98,000 hectares in Louisiana (28,000 hectares), Arkansas (20,000 hectares) and Arizona (10,500 hectares).