Billionaire Desmarais Takes Page From Rockefeller in Farm Push

  • Mutual fund titan says six figures possible for organic farms
  • Power Corp. co-CEO wants alumni to start their own farms

Photographer: Christinne Muschi/Bloomberg

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Andre Desmarais’s farm seems too pretty to be real.

A massive, colorful sculpture by French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle towers over beets and greens. Stained-glass windows by Quebec painter Marc Seguin adorn the pig barn on the 160-acre property that lies 6 kilometers (4 miles) from the U.S. border. Chickens hop in and out of wooden coops, occasionally escaping the meadow to venture near the Canadian billionaire’s country residence.