Factcheck this

Bill Gates owns the majority of U.S. farmland.

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by Newbie (290 points)
I’m not sure if this is true, but I’ve seen people on social media use it to suggest Gates is trying to control the food supply. I’d like to fact-check it to see how much farmland he actually owns, and what that means in context. I saw this claim in a tweet that was going viral in 2024 and linked to an article on The Gateway Pundit , and later heard it mentioned on a podcast.

1 Answer

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ago by Apprentice (1.0k points)

According to The Land Report, Bill Gates owns 275,000 acres of farmland, less than 1% of the total 876.5 million acres noted by the USDA's 2024 report. Gates certainly owns a lot of farmland (perhaps more than any other individual owner in the US), but not nearly a majority. The Land Report's findings have been cited by other publications like Forbes. 
 

False
ago by Newbie (380 points)
0 0
I like that you pulled directly from the Land Report and backed it up with USDA data. It might be interesting to add how Gates compares to corporations and institutional landowners as well as individuals. It might explain how this rumor got started.

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