People believed discover the parallels between the growing number of farmland in Bill Gates and climate change. The tech billionaire also plays a prominent role in agriculture. He and his ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, also own two of the largest privately owned farms in the United States.
He started buying arable land
Recently, commentators have looked at Gates’ properties, critics have been mainly environmentalists and farmers who say there appears to be a discrepancy between his environmental goals and his personal investment strategies.
Others have speculated that the purchase of arable land may be part of the billionaire’s overall climate protection efforts. There is no connection, Bill Gates says. But the new details of the purchases, and the debate surrounding them, serve as an important reminder that billionaires can store their vast fortunes in all kinds of unexpected places, and there is often tension between their personal investments and their stated philanthropic activities.
NBC News reported the fact that in the past 10 years, the Gates family has acquired more than 269,000 acres of farms in the United States. The purchases, made with the help of Washington’s Cascade Investment and a number of other companies, include farmland in nearly 20 states that grow vegetables such as carrots, soybeans and potatoes. The agribusiness, under which the tech billionaire and his wife are the country’s largest private farm owners, was first reported in a January Land Report. This news was also confirmed by an analysis of the upcoming NBC News.
Approximately 300,000 acres, much of it owned by a family or individual, is still just a fraction of the approximately 911 million acres of farmland in the United States. While Gates appears to be one of the largest landowners in the country, it also appears that investing in arable land isn’t the only strategy. Other large financial corporations also seek to purchase farmland, even if they are not engaged in day-to-day farming. The Land Report, which identified Gates as the owner of the largest private farm, lists a number of other families who own more than 100,000 acres. The USDA estimates that about 30 percent of agricultural land in the United States is owned by owners, such as the legendary head of Microsoft, who can be identified as real estate owners who are not involved in farming.
So it is not surprising that even one of the richest people in the world invests his money in agriculture. It is common for influential people who have working capital in similar portfolios to serve their financial interests.
Profitable investment with negative repercussions
This is a good investment
Happy Farmer Jonathan Hladek, Rural Center Political Director. In his opinion, this is a smart and stable investment whose value will continue to rise, based on the experience of the past few decades.
However, real estate owned by Bill Gates received special attention. The reason for the echo was the billionaire’s attempt to gain a good reputation in the field of climate protection, which many people believe is incompatible with his investment strategy. The techguru is currently promoting a book on the subject, positioning himself and the Gates Foundation as a technical leader in the future of agriculture.
(Photo: landreport.com)
John Quarterman, a Georgian farmer and ecologist, told NBC that while he expected Gates to encourage more sustainable practices after purchasing farmland, that example is not yet visible. The National Farmers Union rightly believes that the growing number of non-farm owners, such as Gates, are guiding the sector in the wrong direction. Buying and renting agricultural land can lead to practices that harm the environment. Farmers who lease land in the short term are unlikely to consider long-term sustainable solutions. According to the organization, the owners of non-agricultural farms have no experience with it
Understand the importance of protecting natural resources.
Others have argued the opposite, noting that Gates’ investments in vast arable land may be directly linked to other positive climate efforts. For example, Newsweek recently reported that the land acquisition may be linked to its investment in climate-related agricultural development and impossible food, but it did not provide much support for that assumption.
Avoid criticism
While Bill Gates has previously attempted to separate the Gates Foundation’s work on climate change from its own investments, Cascade Investment has defended its record on sustainability. In response to the criticism, a Cascade Investment spokesperson confirmed that it has included all of its farmland in the program of a nonprofit organization called Leading Harvest, which issues sustainability standards that focus on biodiversity, conservation and soils.
Cascade plans to continue evaluating and implementing new initiatives that improve the overall sustainability of the arable land portfolio
Recode said the spokesman.
In a broader sense, Gates and other wealthy land buyers have been criticized for their contribution to the concentration of land ownership. Because they are usually bidding higher than the local farmers can afford, fewer people will end up on their farmland. As Professor Nick Estes of the University of New Mexico wrote to the Guardian in April, this is what he wrote
It puts more pressure on monoculture and more intensive industrial farming techniques to achieve higher yields.
By separating his own investments and his actions for climate protection, Gates himself has avoided speculation. Reddit said at the AMA in March that only his investment group chose this, non-climate solution. Although he agreed that the agricultural sector is a major issue that needs to be addressed. However, many are unable to separate the two completely. For those of whom Bill Gates is an environmentalist, they believe that the two roles are interconnected and inseparable from the ownership position even if the billionaire does not want to take it.
