Gates engaged in spudding land war
An entity with ties to billionaire Bill Gates bought 2,100 acres of potato farmland in northern North Dakota — prompting the state’s top prosecutor to intervene after complaints from local residents.
Public records cited by AgWeek show the Red River Trust bought the land from the owners of Campbell Farms, a potato farming group headquartered in Grafton, ND.
North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring told KFYR that public reaction has been largely negative.
“I’ve gotten a big earful on this from clear across the state, it’s not even from that neighborhood,” he said. “Those people are upset, but there are others that are just livid about this.”
Gates, whose net worth was pegged by Bloomberg at $113 billion, has quietly amassed some 269,000 acres of farmland across the country, according to The Associated Press.
The trustee of Red River Trust is Peter Headley, who identifies himself on LinkedIn as head of agriculture investment management at Investment Management Co. A 2020 article by NFU Mutual Charitable Trust claimed Headley once headed “Cottonwood,” an “ag-investment platform” for Bill and Melinda Gates.
Earlier this week, North Dakota State Attorney General Drew Wrigley wrote a letter to Red River Trust notifying it that corporations were “prohibited from owning or leasing farmland or ranchland in the state of North Dakota.” The trust and Headley were given 30 days to respond.
Gates said last year that the purchases by his “investment group” were linked to seed and biofuel development.