Forbes released its annual ranking of the 400 richest Americans. One Iowan made the list
An Iowan is one of the richest people in America.
Seed billionaire Harry Stine of Adel-based Stine Seed landed in the Forbes 400, the business magazine's annual ranking of the 400 richest Americans. Stine, who is now 81, rolled in at No. 76 in the list's top 100 with a real time net worth of $9.7 billion.
Tesla titan Elon Musk topped the list once again with an estimated net worth of $251 billion. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos beat out Oracle chief technology officer and co-founder Larry Ellison for No. 2.
More: The richest person in Iowa is a self-made billionaire
Stine, a father of four, grew up as the son of a farmer in Adel, a town of roughly 6,000 people near Des Moines. He still drives to Stine Seed's headquarters in his Ford F-150 pickup and lives in a humble home right down the road.
How did Iowa's richest man grow his wealth? Seed money
According to Forbes, Iowa's richest man and sole billionaire is a huge table tennis fan and hunts morel mushrooms. But the central Iowa native grew his fortune the simple way: with seed money.
Stine made his billions from breeding soybeans and corn before licensing the genetics to companies such as Syngenta and Monsanto. The self-made billionaire started farming at just 5 years old.
In the 1990s, Forbes said Stine "struck highly lucrative licensing deals with large multinational corporations across the globe, which form the backbone of his empire."
Jay Stahl is an entertainment reporter at The Des Moines Register. Follow him on Instagram or reach out at jstahl@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Harry Stine lands on Forbes 400 list of richest Americans
