Bill Gates' North Dakota farmland purchase was almost derailed by an archaic Depression-era law

• Bill Gates' purchase of North Dakota farmland has been cleared by the state's attorney general.
• It had initially raised legal questions due to an archaic law that dates back to the Great Depression.

Bill Gates has been cleared to proceed with the purchase of a North Dakota potato farm after the state's attorney general said it complied with an archaic Depression-era law.

This is because the land will be leased back to farmers, according to The Associated Press, which reported the news.

The buyer, Red River Trust, is linked to Gates, who is the largest owner of farmland in the US.

The $13.5 million purchase of the farmland originally raised legal questions due to a decades-old state law that prohibited corporations, trusts, and limited liability companies from farming activities in the region. The law is designed to protect family farms in North Dakota.

The anti-corporate farming law does, however, allow individual trusts to own the land if it is leased to farmers, per The AP.

The state's agricultural commissioner, Doug Goehring, told a local NBC affiliate that people across the state were "upset" and others were "livid" about the purchase.

On June 21, the North Dakota attorney general's office sent a letter about the purchase to Red River Trust. The letter notified a trustee, Peter Headley, that the attorney general's office was seeking to confirm how the company was using the farmland and learn if its usage was compliant with statutory exceptions, Insider reported.

Red River Trust received a second letter from the attorney general's office on June 29, which said the transaction complied with the Depression-era law as it was being leased by the farmers, according to The Associated Press.

Representatives for Gates did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment made outside of normal working hours.

The sale will add around 2,100 acres to the 242,000 acres of farmland that Gates owned, as of 2021, according to a Land Report. Insider previously reported that the land could be split between Gates and his ex-wife Melinda, following their divorce.