This week, the Attorney General of North Dakota officially cleared the sale of a whopping 2,100 acres of farmland to the Bill Gates-backed Red River Trust following an investigation into the legality of the purchase.
With the approval, Bill Gates surpasses… himself as the largest single landowner in the United States. The 2,100 acres will be added to his portfolio of 242,000 acres across 18 states as of January 2021.
Despite sounding the alarm about the purchase and holding the sale up in the first place, AG Drew Wrigley, a republican, found that the purchase complies with a Depression-era law because the land is being leased back to farmers.
From The Epoch Times:
“The move drew scrutiny from North Dakota’s top prosecutor in context of possible non-compliance with laws that prohibit corporations or limited liability companies from owning farmland or ranchland, but allow individual trusts to own the land if it is leased to farmers.
Attorney General Drew Wrigley was looking into the land sale and on June 29 issued a letter saying the transaction complies with the anti-corporate farming law because the farmland is being leased back to farmers.”
Somehow, allowing the uber-wealthy Gates to become the farmer’s defacto landlord is in compliance with the law that is meant to “protect family farms” from corporate monopolization. Makes total sense…
Gates, who has long been a proponent (and key investor) of plant-based meat substitutes, has been on a tear buying up farmland across the country over the past few years. His actions have sparked massive concern about his plans for the land, with many critics claiming, not baselessly, that his purchases are a part of a larger scheme to control food production on a large scale.
After all, it’s no secret that Gates is completely in alignment with the World Economic Forum’s goal of a “Great Reset,” so, it should concern every American – at the very least – that he is seizing the means of production of food in the US on such a massive scale. If he keeps this up, he could monopolize a large portion of the food production industry, especially with the current situation where food plants are mysteriously being destroyed across the country by the week.
Hundreds of facilities have already been shut down or destroyed in just the first half of 2022 alone.
So what gives? We have all heard the line ‘never let a good crisis go to waste,’ and it seems like Gates is capitalizing on the food crunch at the right time to make the most out of it – now, that’s a terrifying thought.
As for Gates himself, he has seldomly addressed his farmland purchases publicly. He did, however, get caught off guard by an audience-submitted question during a panel discussion in March, in which he was asked straight up: “Why are you buying so much farmland?”
Unsurprisingly, his answer provided little in the way of specifics. Apparently, it has something to do with testing new “more productive” seeds. Oh, and helping combat climate change in Africa, because monopolizing American farmland will help so much with that…
From Gates:
“The agriculture sector is important. With more productive seeds we can avoid deforestation and help Africa deal with the climate difficulty they already face. It is unclear how cheap biofuels can be but if they are cheap it can solve the aviation and truck emissions.”
Now, thanks to the North Dakota AG, Gates is adding another 2,100 acres to his already unprecedented private land holdings.