Citing a national security danger, the Trump administration announced on Tuesday that it would work to restrict foreign and Chinese purchases of American farmland.
The Agriculture Department said it would strengthen public disclosures of foreign farmland ownership, implement harsher penalties for fraudulent filings, and collaborate with Congress and states to prohibit purchases from foreign foes as part of a seven-point national security plan.
During a press conference on Tuesday, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins stated that criminals, political rivals, and hostile regimes that perceive our way of life as a serious and existential threat to themselves are all posing a threat to American agriculture.
The action demonstrates how foreign ownership of American agriculture, especially Chinese ownership, has become a growing concern in recent years. After a Chinese corporation tried to buy acreage for a maize mill near a military base in North Dakota in 2023, the Senate voted 91 to 7 to prohibit Chinese companies from buying American farmland. The Biden administration also suggested a rule in 2024 that would make it far more difficult for foreign companies to purchase land close to areas considered vital to national security.
Currently, 26 states restrict or forbid foreigners from investing in or buying agricultural land inside their borders. Although a 1978 legislation compels foreign owners to register their assets, there is no federal law that forbids the practice. However, the disclosure requirements have been criticized as being too loose, and the government’s data gathering process has been criticized as being inefficient and prone to errors.
According to the most recent data available, foreigners controlled around 45 million acres of forests and crops in 2023. Although it only made up only 3.5 percent of the nation’s total agricultural area, it was a more than 70 percent growth from ten years prior. China possessed more than 270,000 acres, while Canadians controlled the most, 15.3 million acres, or roughly a third.
During the press conference, Ms. Rollins stated that the Trump administration was looking into ways to reclaim farms that had already been purchased from overseas.
The Agriculture Department’s plan also calls for enhancing security in agricultural research, reevaluating department programs that support foreign countries, identifying and refocusing domestic production of vital farming inputs like fertilizers, combating fraud in nutrition assistance programs like food stamps, protecting against animal and plant diseases, and assisting private food and agriculture companies in defending their operations against cyberattacks.
More than a dozen Republican politicians and representatives from the Trump administration joined Ms. Rollins.
