farmland Archives - Northwest Public Broadcasting

Lawmaker proposes ban to keep foreign entities from buying Washington forest and farmland

By Tom Banse February 17, 2023

Conversations with farmers in the Skagit Valley, seen here from Samish Overlook, inspired a Democratic state legislator to propose to bar foreign entities from buying Washington croplands

Legislators in Washington state are joining more than a dozen other states that are considering whether to restrict or ban foreign entities from buying farmland. The initial hearing on Olympia's version of the foreign ownership restrictions however drew more criticism than support on Tuesday.Read More

Major Swath Of Easterday Land In Southeast Washington Goes For Nearly $210 Million At Auction

By Anna King June 18, 2021

Verdant fields dot the basalt benches above the Columbia River near Goose Gap Farm, an Easterday property that's about to be auctioned off in a bankruptcy stemming from a swindle of 225,000 cattle.

The agricultural arm of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-day Saints — Farmland Reserve, Inc. — has agreed to pay about $210 million for a major swath of southeastern Washington farm ground.Read More

Why Bill Gates Is Investing Big Time In Farmland Across Washington And The Country

By NWPB News February 17, 2021

File photo. Washington state's richest residents, including Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, would pay a wealth tax on certain financial assets worth more than $1 billion under a 2021 proposed bill whose sponsor says she is seeking a fair and equitable tax code. Under the bill, starting Jan. 1, 2022, for taxes due in 2023, a 1% tax would be levied not on income, but on "extraordinary" assets ranging from cash, publicly traded options, futures contracts, and stocks and bonds. CREDIT: Elains Thompson/AP

Seattle’s technology billionaires are many things: innovators, visionaries, philanthropists and some less polite descriptors, depending on whom you ask. But thanks to some scrupulous digging by industry journal The Land Report, which tracks land ownership across the country, we now know that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has another feather in his multi hyphenated career Read More

An Airbnb For Cropland Hits A Snag, As Farmers Raise Data Privacy Concerns

By NPR News February 24, 2020

A mix of barley, peas and flax grows in a field at Casey Bailey's farm near Fort Benton, Mont. Bailey sells this crop to Montana dairy farmer Nate Brown, who has been feeding it to his goats.

American farmers spend about $32 billion each year to rent land, and Tillable CEO Corbett Kull thinks his company could be farmland's AirBnB or Zillow. "This is one of the beauties of digital marketplaces, where you can bring two parties together that otherwise might never meet," he says.Read More

‘American Soil’ Farmland Is Increasingly Foreign Owned

By NPR News May 28, 2019

After being stalled in negotiations for months, mostly around disputes over SNAP, the farm bill the conference report has been released. CREDIT: BLOOMBERG/GETTY IMAGES

American soil. Those are two words that are commonly used to stir up patriotic feelings. They are also words that can't be be taken for granted, because today nearly 30 million acres of U.S. farmland are held by foreign investors. That number has doubled in the past two decades, which is raising alarm bells in farming communities.Read More