30% of US Farmland Is Owned by Landlords Who Don’t Farm Themselves

Welcome back to feudal land relations

Investments in farmland are growing across the country as people, including the ultra-wealthy like Bill Gates, look for new ways to grow their money.

In 2020, Gates made headlines for becoming the largest private farmland owner in the U.S. He had accumulated more than 269,000 acres of farmland across 18 states in less than a decade. His farmland grows onions, carrots and even the potatoes that are used to make McDonald’s french fries.

“It’s an asset with increasing value,” American Farmland Trust CEO John Piotti said. “It has great intrinsic value and beyond that, it is a limited resource.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that 30% of all farmland is owned by landlords who don’t farm themselves.

Buyers often purchase land from farmers who have owned it for decades; many of whom may be asset rich but maybe cash poor.

“The economic realities for them are typical that they’ve spent their life farming,” said Holly Rippon-Butler, land campaign director at the National Young Farmers Coalition. “Their retirement, their equity is all in the land and tied up in selling land.”

Private landowners are also making a profit by utilizing the land in numerous ways. Approximately 39% of the 911 million acres of farmland across the U.S. is rented out to farmers, and 80% of that rented farmland is owned by landlords who don’t farm themselves data from the Agriculture Department shows. [Wonder how much of the other 61% is owned by agricultural companies rather than individual farmers.]

“The young farmers are just as happy to lease the land because whether you are young or old, it’s a business, right?” said Thomas Petterfy, chairman of Interactive Brokers and owner of 581,000 acres.

“You go buy a farm and you put that cash rental lease in place, you’re going to be looking at about 2.5% return on your capital,” Peoples Company President Steve Bruere said.

Source: CBS

4 Comments
  1. Raptar Driver says

    No Gates Acres sitcom?

  2. yuri says

    the German poet Heine observed that well fed rats loved their cage—-amerikans amongst the most obese on earth….an oral culture—the 1st stage of Freud’s 5 stages of development…..”amerikan politics is baby talk, a vaudeville act”. Neil Postman
    “amerikan adults speak about themselves and their achievements as they dis when they were children”. Geoffrey Gorer
    amerikans decribed as shallow, stupid, ignorant by everyone…this explains why they require emperor gates to install the senile veg Biden as honors rat catcher

  3. geo says

    And more than 60% of the planet is “controlled” by same clan – RedShield (free translation) and nobody cares…

  4. Pavel says

    Feudalism anyone? Gates will ask for prima nocte with your daugther or your little sis if you want to grow some hens or make some bread…

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