North Dakota farmland purchase tied to Gates stirs emotion

North Dakota farmland purchase tied to Gates stirs emotion

SeattlePI.com

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FARGO, N.D. (AP) — The sale of prime North Dakota farmland to a group tied to Bill Gates has stirred emotions over a Depression-era law meant to protect family farms and raised questions about whether the billionaire shares the state’s values.

The state's attorney general has asked the trust that acquired the land to explain how it plans to use it in order to meet rules outlined in the state's archaic anti-corporate farming law. It prohibits all corporations or limited liability companies from owning or leasing farmland or ranchland, with some exceptions.

“I don't know that it's quite as volatile a situation as some have depicted,” North Dakota Republican Attorney General Drew Wrigley told The Associated Press Thursday. “It's taken off, it's all over the planet, but it's not me sticking a finger in the eye of Bill Gates. That's not what this is.”

Meanwhile, the state's Agriculture Commissioner, Republican Doug Goehring, told a North Dakota TV station that many people feel they are being exploited by the ultra-rich who buy land but do not necessarily share the state’s values. Goehring, who is currently on a state-sponsored trade mission to the United Kingdom, did not immediately respond to a list of questions emailed by the AP.

“I’ve gotten a big earful on this from clear across the state, it’s not even from that neighborhood,” Goehring told KFYR-TV. “Those people are upset, but there are others that are just livid about this.”

Charles V. Zehren, a spokesman for Gates' investment firm, declined Thursday to comment to the AP.

Wrigley said the corporate farming inquiry goes out "as a matter of course” when his office is notified of farmland sales, in this case Red River Trust's $13.5 million purchase of property in two counties from wealthy northeastern North Dakota...

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