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Most Illinois farmland is not owned by farmers
Less than 25% of Illinois farmland is owned by the farmer who works the land, with the rest leased by individuals, family trusts and, increasingly, investors looking to turn a profit.
The rest of the top 10 are families and business tycoons, including Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Gaylon Lawrence Jr., who also owns a string of Napa Valley wineries, and Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shahid Khan. The firm, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange,states on its homepage that its “core business is purchasing high-quality farmland then leasing that land back to farmers at the highest possible rents — thus deriving returns for company investors through income revenue and asset appreciation.” Polston, a park planner and municipal project manager who spent his professional life in Oklahoma and Oregon before recently retiring to Washington state, inherited 103 acres in DeWitt County when his mother died in 1989.
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