{"id":8780,"date":"2021-06-11T13:19:14","date_gmt":"2021-06-11T17:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/?p=8780"},"modified":"2021-06-11T13:19:14","modified_gmt":"2021-06-11T17:19:14","slug":"okra-paradise-farms-is-disappointed-in-farmer-bill-gates-2021-06-08","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/okra-paradise-farms-is-disappointed-in-farmer-bill-gates-2021-06-08.html","title":{"rendered":"Okra Paradise Farms is disappointed in farmer Bill Gates 2021-06-08"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\nOkra Paradise Farms doesn’t always get into national news,\r\nbut when we do it’s about Bill Gates.\r\n

\r\nApril Glaser, NBC News, 8 June 2021, updated 9 June 2021,\r\n\r\nMcDonald’s french fries, carrots, onions: all of the foods that come from Bill Gates farmland:\r\nGates does not appear to count his farming investments as the nation\u2019s largest farmland owner as part of his broader strategy to save the climate.<\/a>\r\n

\r\nThe story goes into some detail about how a few big corporate farmland owners\r\ncrowd out small farmers.\r\nShe didn’t go for my comparison to Wal-Mart,\r\nand I suppose my comparison to the Highland Clearances was a bit too obscure,\r\nbut she got the point and backed it up with documentation.\r\n

\r\nThen there’s this part:\r\n

\r\n

“Shell of a shell of a shell”<\/H4>\r\n

\r\nPublic records suggest Cascade Investments has bought its farmland\r\nthrough a web of at least 22 limited liability shell companies\r\nacross the country. These shell companies have made it difficult to\r\nfind out where and how much farmland the Gateses own even for local\r\nfarmers, like John S. Quarterman, a farmer and landowner who grows\r\nokra, corn, squash and other vegetables in Lowndes County on the\r\nsouthern edge of Georgia.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\"[John<\/a>\r\n
John Quarterman on his farm in Lowndes County, Ga. Matt Odom \/ for NBC News<\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nThat’s where the Gateses began buying land in 2013 through two\r\nlimited liability corporations registered to an address in Kirkland\r\nby Derek Yurosek, then head of agriculture operations for Cascade.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nWhen Quarterman first heard about Gates’ firm buying land in the\r\narea, he began digging through local property records, linking\r\naddresses and business records from registered owners to\r\nKirkland-based companies, until he was able to piece together that\r\nthe companies buying multiple tracts of land in the Suwannee River\r\nBasin were all a “shell of a shell of a shell company\r\ninvesting for Bill Gates.” NBC News’ independently confirmed\r\nthat there were, in fact, shell companies tracing back to Gates’\r\nfirm that purchased 6,021 acres across four counties in Georgia.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nThat includes\r\n\r\n a couple of counties in the Altamaha River Basin,\r\nwhere he grows onions,\r\nand Lowndes and Echols Counties in the Suwannee River Basin,\r\nwhere he started his buying spree with the Coggins Carrot Farm.\r\n

\r\n

\r\nIn Georgia and Florida, NBC News independently confirmed through\r\nresearch of property records that the Gateses’ investment firm owns\r\nmore than 7,000 acres through two limited liability companies,\r\nLakeland Sands and Lakeland Sands Florida, LLC. Both companies were\r\nfounded in 2012 with the same address as Cascade Investments in\r\nKirkland, which later changed its mailing address to a Louisiana\r\npost office box assigned to Oak River Farms, another subsidiary of\r\nCascade.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nNBC News also found that another 6,500 acres in north Florida are\r\nowned by yet another company, Suwannee River Terra, which was also\r\nstarted with an address in Kirkland and an email address from the\r\nBill and Melinda Gates Investment Firm, which is now registered to\r\nthe current chief counsel of Oak River Farms with a mailing address\r\nin Kansas, according to property records.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nIn every state where the Gateses own land, a tangled web of locally\r\nregistered limited liability companies follow. While those companies\r\ndon’t explicitly name Cascade Investments as the owner in their\r\npublic records, they do share the address of Cascade in Kirkland,\r\nWashington, or the address of a Cascade subsidiary, list the names\r\nof Cascade employees who registered the companies and sometimes even\r\nemail addresses from the Bill and Melinda Gates Investment Group.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nActually, I think there are LLCs involved that do not have addresses\r\nof Cascade Investments. I had to trace the chain through Chicago to start with.\r\nBut the main point is in the story, of shells within shells like Russian nesting dolls.\r\n

\r\nThere’s more in the story.\r\nI do not subscribe to its conclusion that it will take Gates-size\r\nswathes of land to sequester enough carbon to deal with the climate crisis.\r\nLots of small farmers would be much better.\r\nBut otherwise it’s a good story.\r\n

\r\nSee also the part with\r\nme in my other hat as Suwannee Riverkeeper<\/a>.\r\n

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