A new report finds that the Mormon Church owns about 370,000 acres in Nebraska, making them the state's biggest landowner

The Mormon Church is said to own the most valuable private real estate portfolio in America, and they’re expanding their footprint in Nebraska, where the religious institution is on the verge of becoming the state’s biggest landowner.

According to a report by Destiny Herbers for the Flatwater Free Press, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been buying up land in Nebraska for decades. While the rate of purchase has slowed down in recent years, the overall amount is still increasing.

The church bought a whopping 57,500 acres—double the amount of the second largest buyer—between 2018 and 2022, according to a Flatwater Free Press analysis of data gathered by a University of <strong>Nebraska</strong>-Lincoln College of Journalism and Mass Communications data journalism class.

The Mormon Church now owns about 370,000 total acres of zoned agricultural land in <strong>Nebraska</strong>. It could soon become <strong>Nebraska</strong>’s largest landowner—passing Ted Turner, who has famously long occupied that No. 1 spot—if church representatives continue to buy land at their current pace.

There are two obvious questions that come to mind: How? And why?!

The how is downright diabolical. You may recall that, a few years ago, whistleblowers revealed that the Mormon Church was taking in money ostensibly designated for charity… but never used it for that purpose. They were sitting on a stockpile, the whistleblowers said, worth approximately $100 billion.

The Salt Lake Tribune has said more recently that the LDS Church’s investments, made through a separate company, are worth over $163 billion. They have shares of stock in companies like Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta, as well as Mastercard and Exxon Mobil. They do this with the help of shell companies that allow the Church to hide their investments from public view. In theory, Church leaders say, this cash is meant to function as a “rainy day” fund in case of economic downturns and to assist with the Church’s missionary work. But there’s no reason a private religious group needs that much money for either reason.

That’s why it’s even more puzzling why they’re purchasing so much land in Nebraska through a different holding company called “Farmland Reserve Inc.”

What is it all for?

The church sees its land buys as a force for good, an investment in agriculture “to generate long-term value to support the Church’s religious, charitable, and humanitarian good works,” said a Farmland Reserve spokesman. 

The nonprofit owned by the church also pays property taxes like any other ag producer in the state, and state and federal income taxes, too, the spokesman noted – though an unknown amount of revenue is given to the church itself, which doesn’t have to pay taxes on passive investments. 

…

Former church president Gordon B. Hinckley explained its farming plans in the 1991 State of the Church. “We have felt that good farms, over a long period, represent a safe investment where the assets of the Church may be preserved and enhanced, while at the same time they are available as an agricultural resource to feed people should there come a time of need,” Hinckley said.

You see? This is a good long-term investment for the Church… and also, in case of widespread chaos, they can grow their own food. It’s like Jim Bakker’s Giant Apocalypse Buckets… but somewhat less embarrassing.

By purchasing all this land, though, they’re also driving up real estate prices and making life harder for independent farmers. Not that they care. It’s just another investment by a wealthy company that only knows it wants more.

The article notes that the LDS Church took advantage of a loophole that only let non-profit companies own farmland. That law was declared illegal in 2007, but the Church was already sitting on over 200,000 acres. They’ve only bought more since then, this time with the help of a for-profit company (also under the Church’s umbrella) called AgReserves Inc. (The report also notes that AgReserves is “believed to be Florida’s largest private landowner.&rdquo

The Church says it pays taxes on all this land it owns, but it’s far more complicated than that:

In <strong>Nebraska</strong>, the structure of corporations seems to work like this: the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints owns Farmland Reserve Inc., which owns the land ranched by AgReserves Inc.

When AgReserves Inc. makes profit ranching it pays income taxes like a normal company. 

Then AgReserves pays rent to Farmland Reserve Inc, which pays tax on a portion of that income.

But AgReserves also sends an unknown amount of profits directly to the church. The church doesn’t pay income taxes on that money because it is considered passive investment income. 

Purchase enough land with money you’ve already hoarded thanks to the donations of very gullible believers, and you stand to make even more without doing any work. The Church says they may lease some of the land to local farmers, which is a fine business strategy, but it’s not like they’re planning to build affordable housing on it. When you consider all the money the LDS Church is investing in this land, and how much they could make over the next few decades, then compare that to how little they’re investing into making the world a better place, it’s a reminder of how profit comes before principles.

To paraphrase what many online commenters have said, this isn’t a religion with a side business. This is a business with a side religion.