Bill Gates Accused Of Killing Thousands Of Cattle In Kansas In Online Conspiracy Theory

Billionaire Bill Gates has been accused of killing thousands of cattle in Kansas, according to unsubstantiated claims by people on Twitter in a bizarre new conspiracy theory.

A viral video of dead cows in northwest Kansas circulated widely on the platform today, inspiring a variety of reactions as it spread to other sites around the web.

According to local and national news sources reporting on the cattle deaths, the cause was high humidity, no wind and a sudden spike in temperatures over the past few days that saw highs of 108 degrees Fahrenheit (or 42 Celsius) in Kansas.

Many scientists attribute the unpredictable and extreme weather to climate change, which has accelerated desertification in the Great Plains. As seen during the Dust Bowl years of the 1930s, the southern stretch of the Great Plains is a fragile ecosystem where highly intensive agriculture and ranching can have catastrophic consequences.

A number of people online, however, insisted that they would not be friends with people who believe that kind of thing.

Responding to the video, a number of posters speculated about who would benefit from a massive die-off of cattle. They cited Bill Gates, who is invested in synthetic meat and a central character in many pre-existing conspiracy theories as a possible culprit. This also comes not long after the Peach Tree Dish meme where Marjorie Taylor Greene shared similar conspiracies.

They also cited the fact that Gates is now the largest private individual owner of farmland in the U.S. — the billionaire owns almost 300,000 out of the estimated 911 million acres of farmland in the country, and rents it out for profit. According to the USDA about 60 percent of American farmland is operated by its owners, while about 30 percent is owned by non-operator landlords like Gates who rent it out to farmers.

Bill Gates has stated in the past that he thinks the type of emissions-heavy and water-use-heavy cattle ranching practiced in the U.S. is unsustainable, and he would prefer developed countries switch to 100 percent synthetic beef.

Other posters pushed back against the accusations as the story continued generating discussions throughout the day.

Gates seems to have a sense of humor about these topics, joking about conspiracy theories connecting him to vaccines as social control.

Many seem to feel that meat is threatened in America. According to online chatter ongoing since April, there have been a large amount of fires at food processing plants in the U.S., which some view as evidence of conspiracy. Prices for meat have also risen, along with prices for other commodities, due to inflation.

In order to address meat-pricing issues, Democratic Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger has proposed a bill to reform the industry and hopefully drive down prices.