Bipartisan Effort Aims to Limit Foreign Farmland Purchases

U.S. lawmakers continue to gain traction in efforts to monitor and regulate foreign purchases of U.S. farmland. Senators Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) plan to address the concern commonly heard from farmers. The senators hope the next farm bill will include an “overhaul” of the system that has “allowed national security risks to go on for far too long.” Advocating for more USDA oversight authority through the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act, the senators aim to “upgrade the tools available to combat nefarious interests” in U.S. farmland.

Attention on foreign land purchases has increasingly become a bipartisan effort, particularly after a Chinese company purchased 300 acres of farmland near an Air Force Base in North Dakota. USDA reports Chinese investors own roughly 384,000 acres of U.S. farmland, rising 31,000 acres in the last two years.

Read more on foreign land purchases and lawmaker efforts here.