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1.媒體來源:
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Vox (外媒

2.記者署名:
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※ 外電至少要有來源或編輯 如:法新社
Rebecca Heilweil

3.完整新聞標題:
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比爾蓋茲成為美國私有農地最大擁有者的爭議
The controversy over Bill Gates becoming the largest private farmland owner
in the US

4.完整新聞內文:
※ 社論特稿都不能貼！違者刪除（政治類水桶3個月)，貼廣告也會被刪除喔！可詳看版規
Bill Gates might be a tech billionaire — but he and his wife Melinda French
Gates, who are in the process of divorcing, are also two of the largest
private farmland owners in the United States.

比爾蓋茲 (Bill Gates) 除是一位科技億萬富翁外，也是與正在離婚的妻子梅琳達· 弗倫
奇· 蓋茲 (Melinda French Gates) 為美國私有農地的最大兩個擁有者。

Recent reports detailing the extent of Gates’s land ownership have prompted
criticism from some environmental advocates and farmers, who say there seems
to be a contradiction between his public environmental advocacy and his
personal investment strategy.

最近一些環保提倡者與農民因關於蓋茲土地擁有量的詳細報導而進行批評，他們表示蓋茲
的公共環境宣傳與他的個人投資之間似乎存在著矛盾。

Others have speculated the farmland purchases may be a part of the billionaire
’s overall climate efforts. Bill Gates has said there’s no connection,
either way. But the new details on the purchases — and the discussion
surrounding them — serve as an important reminder that billionaires can
store their massive wealth in all sorts of unexpected places, and that there
can often be a tension between their personal investments and their more
publicized philanthropic work.



On Tuesday, NBC News reported that the Gateses had acquired more than 269,000
acres of farm in the United States in the past 10 years. Those purchases,
made with the help of the Washington-based firm Cascade Investment and a
number of shell companies, include farmland in nearly 20 states that
cultivate vegetables such as carrots, soybeans, and potatoes (some of which
end up in McDonald’s French fries). These details come after the agriculture
outlet the Land Report reported in January that the tech billionaire and his
wife were the country’s top private farmland owners in the country. An NBC
News analysis also identified Gates as the largest farmland owner in the US.


將成為麥當勞的炸薯條)。這些細節資訊是一月份於農業媒體土地報告 (Land Report) 刊

載而出，該媒體稱這為科技億萬富翁與其妻子為該國私有農地的最大擁有者。NBC 新聞亦
進行分析與驗證，蓋茲確為美國私有農地的最大擁有者。

Almost 300,000 acres is a lot of land for one family or private individual to
own, but it’s still just a small part of the estimated 911 million acres of
farmland in the US. While Gates appears to be one of the largest private
farmland owners in the country, he’s far from alone in wanting to
incorporate farmland into his investment strategy.



As Mother Jones recently reported, other large financial firms have sought to
purchase agricultural land, too, even if they have no involvement in the
day-to-day farming operations. Land Report, the outlet that named Gates the
top private farm owner, notes several other families that claim well over
100,000 acres. The US Department of Agriculture estimates that about 30
percent of US farmland is rented out by owners who serve as landlords and aren
’t involved in farming, like Gates.



All this is to say, it shouldn’t be surprising that Bill Gates, one of the
wealthiest people in the world, makes investments to serve his own financial
interests.

這意味著，像比爾蓋茲這樣作為世界上最富有的人之一，會為了自己的經濟利益而進行投
資並不足為奇。

“It’s a good investment,” Johnathan Hladik, a farmer and the policy
director for the Center on Rural Affairs. “It’s smart, it’s stable, and
especially over the past couple decades, it seems to be going up.”

「這是一項很好的投資，很聰明。特別是在過去數十年裡，價格穩定上升。」身為農民
兼 Center on Rural Affairs 的政策主任 Johnathan Hladik 如此說道。

Still, Gates’s landownership has attracted particular attention because the
billionaire has tried to make a name for himself in climate advocacy. Gates
is currently promoting a book on the subject, and has positioned himself and
the Gates Foundation as a leader in what the future of agriculture should
look like, especially in regard to technology.



One Georgia farmer and environmental advocate, John Quarterman, told NBC that
while he expected that Gates would encourage more sustainable practices after
buying farmland nearby, his acquisition of that land didn’t change much. And
the National Farmers Union has suggested that the growing number of
non-farmer owners like Gates buying up farmland — and renting it out —
could lead to practices that hurt the environment: Short-term farmers who
rent land are less likely to take long-term conservation steps, the
organization argues, and non-farmer owners don’t have the experience to “
understand the importance of protecting natural resources.”



Others have floated the opposite idea: that Gates’s massive investment in
farmland might have a direct relationship to his other climate efforts.
Newsweek, for instance, recently suggested his land ownership “may be
connected to his investments in climate change agricultural developments and
Impossible Foods,” though it didn’t offer much support for that premise.



While Bill Gates has previously tried to separate his Gates Foundation work
on the climate from his private investments, Cascade Investment has defended
its record on sustainability.

雖然比爾蓋茲先前曾試圖將蓋茲基金會在全球氣候方面的工作與其私人投資切割，但
Cascade Investment 為其在可持續性進行辯護。

In response to criticism, a spokesperson for Cascade Investment emphasized
that it had enrolled all its farmland in a program by Leading Harvest, a
nonprofit that releases standards for sustainability focused on biodiversity,
conservation, and soil. “Cascade plans to continue to evaluate and implement
new initiatives that will improve the overall sustainability of its farmland
portfolio,” the spokesperson told Recode.

在回應批評時，Cascade Investment 的一位發言人強調他已將其所有農田納入了


More broadly, Gates and other wealthy buyers of farmland have also been
criticized for contributing to the concentration of land ownership. Because
they can usually make higher bids than what local farmers can afford, fewer
people end up owning their own farmland. As University of New Mexico
professor Nick Estes wrote for the Guardian in April, this results “in a
greater push for monocultures and more intensive industrial farming
techniques to generate greater returns,” while Indigenous people and small
farmers “are more cautious with the use of land.”



The issues at play go beyond what pieces of land Bill Gates has bought. “
People tend to look either for the salvation story — he’s doing this to
save the planet — or they look for the opposite — you know, it’s just
another greedy landowner,” Bruce Sherrick, an agriculture professor at the
University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, told Recode. Sherrick, who is on the
board of Leading Harvest, says that Gates-owned farms are taking a positive
step by following Leading Harvest’s standards.


Sherrick 向 Recode 說道。Leading Harvest 董事會成員 Sherrick 表示，蓋茲擁有的
農地正積極採取遵循組織標準的措施。

Gates himself made a point to differentiate his climate advocacy and his
investments. In a Reddit AMA in March, the billionaire seemed to try to
separate his climate advocacy and his personal investments when asked about
his wealth of land. “My investment group chose to do this. It is not
connected to climate. The agriculture sector is important,” he said in the
post, before adding a more general comment about deforestation and biofuels.



But whatever Gates might wish, many observers can’t quite separate the two
things. For them, Bill Gates the environmentalist is also Bill Gates the
commercial farmland owner, and they think the two roles are connected even if
Gates doesn’t consider them to be.



5.完整新聞連結 (或短網址):
※ 當新聞連結過長時，需提供短網址方便網友點擊
https://www.vox.com/recode/22528659

6.備註:
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※ 備註請勿張貼三日內新聞(包含連結、標題等)
翻譯好累

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