by Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D., Childrens Health Defense:
Fact-checkers swooped in after social media memes claiming Bill Gates owns a farm that produces genetically modified organism (GMO) potatoes for McDonald’s started gaining traction.
A March 25 Snopes “fact-check” verified that Gates does own a farm in Washington that grows potatoes for McDonald’s. But Snopes said statements made by other memes — claiming Gates supplies McDonald’s with all of its french fries and that they are grown at a “genetically modified potato farm” — were untrue.
TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/
None of the memes — or fact-checkers — addressed Gates’ growing investments in U.S. farmland or the use of pesticides on non-organic potatoes.
And none questioned why someone who promotes himself as concerned about global health — largely through global vaccine campaigns — would supply ingredients for a product known to contribute to cardiovascular conditions and weight gain and that contains 19 ingredients, including canola oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil, dimethylpolysiloxane, tertiary butylhydroquinone, or TBHQ, and citric acid.
Gates still scooping up farmland — through 20 holding companies
But while Gates may not own the other farms that supply potatoes to McDonald’s, by 2021 he had become the largest single owner of farmland in the U.S. according to The Land Report — albeit through a web of holding companies. By January 2021, Gates owned 268,984 acres of U.S. farmland in 18 states.
According to VNExpress, these holdings also make Gates the 42nd largest overall landowner in the U.S., “with most of those ranked above him owning mostly timberland.”
According to British fact-checker Full Fact:
“McDonald’s potatoes are sourced from farms all over the world. One potato supplier listed on the McDonald’s USA website is owned by Bill Gates’ investment firm, but it’s not true to say all potatoes used by the fast food chain are from Mr Gates.”
That “one” supplier, 100 Circle Farms, “is not the only potato supplier to McDonald’s USA.” The farm “is located near the Columbia River in Patteson, Washington, and grows potatoes in rotation with other crops such as sweet corn and wheat.”
According to Snopes, 100 Circle Farms “is part of a large tract of farmland in Washington, near the Oregon-border, that Gates purchased through holding companies in 2018.”
McDonald’s claims that “100 Circle Farms grows potatoes in circles so big they’re visible from space. Then our trusted processor, Lamb Weston, cuts them into fries at 70 miles per hour.”
According to The Land Report, 100 Circle Farm’s acreage includes 10,500 acres of irrigated farmland, 3,900 acres of rangeland, and 140 acres of other land. The tract is located in a” highly productive agricultural region known as Horse Heaven Hills.” The land’s prior owner, John Hancock Life Insurance, paid $75 million in 2010 for the land.
A Tri-City Herald report highlighting the tangled web of holding companies that obfuscates Gates’ farmland ownership, 100 Circle Farm was sold in 2018 to a Louisiana company, Angelina Agriculture Company.
Angelina Ag is a subsidiary company of Oak River Farms, a company that manages agricultural holdings for Cascade Investment — which operates as Gates’ private investment firm.
According to The Land Report:
“Though domiciled in Louisiana, Angelina Ag Company shares the same corporate mailing address as Gates’s Cottonwood Ag Management in Kirkland, Washington. Cottonwood Ag did not respond to inquiries from The Land Report.”
“Cascade, according to its website, does not publicly discuss its assets,” Snopes reported. Full Fact “contacted both Cascade Asset Management Company and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation concerning these land holdings” but said they declined to comment publicly.
Gates’ network of holding companies ‘tangled and opaque’
Gates has continued to buy farmland since The Land Report story was published in 2021.
In January, Investigate Midwest reported that Gates “spent $113 million on Nebraska farmland” between 2018 and 2022.
The Investigate Midwest report also shed more light on the web of companies connected to Gates that have purchased farmland across the U.S.:
“Gates’ farmland is held by more than 20 shell companies spread across the country. Some lead back to a P.O. Box in Kirkland, Washington, the city where Cascade Asset Management, which manages all Gates’ investments, is headquartered.
“Others are linked to Lenexa, Kansas, and Monterey, Louisiana, population 371, where reporters have previously traced Gates’ operations.
“These limited liability companies, buried under layers of business names, overlapping employees and addresses in at least three states, form a network more tangled and opaque than the one created by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is buying a giant amount of Nebraska ranch land.”
According to the report, if Gates turns over ownership of the land to a nonprofit organization — like the Gates Foundation — he could potentially make the land “exempt from property taxes.”
Nebraska state Sen. Tom Brewer, a Republican, told Investigate Midwest if that were to happen, it would “decimate” the counties where Gates’ holdings are located. “It would force action from the Legislature to protect the counties,” Brewer said.
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