According to the Associated Press, the widely reported acquisition of 2,100 acres of North Dakota farmland by Gates’s RED RIVER TRUST for $13.5 million sparked an investigation by the state’s attorney general into whether or not the sale by Campbell Farms violated North Dakota’s anti-corporate farming law. In conclusion, Attorney General Drew Wrigley issued a letter saying the transaction complied with the law, which prohibits corporations or limited liability companies from owning farmland or ranchland but allows individual trusts to own the land if it is leased to farmers. There was one minor detail omitted in this storyline: Bill Gates’s Red River Trust already owned more than 3,000 acres of North Dakota farmland prior to the Campbell Farms purchase.