GOP Reps Step Up The Fight To Secure Farmland From China

The United States is facing a growing problem.

Namely, the trend of selling land assets to foreign governments—particularly farmland. Foreign governments and investors closely related to those governments should not hold sizable amounts of U.S. land.

We are big fans of privatization, but something has to be said about common sense—we cannot simply sell off the country, piece by piece, bit by bit, to the highest bidder.

China has been named as one of the most concerning entities buying up U.S. farmland; however, a cursory glance will reveal that they only own .02% of all available U.S. farmland.

What has lawmakers concerned is the proximity of these land parcels to military bases…

Previous efforts have been made to curb this behavior, but GOP representatives seem to be paying even greater attention to the matter now.

Kristi Noem, Elise Stefanik, and Rick Crawford have all introduced legislation to prevent foreign adversaries like China from acquiring even more U.S. farmland.

Despite these efforts, it is still disheartening to see headlines like this:

“The Chinese Communist Party should not be allowed to purchase land near our military bases. It is dangerous and dumb,” said U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio over the acquisition of farmland by a Chinese company near a key U.S. Air Force base.https://t.co/Sf1Iab1yX3

— Nikkei Asia (@NikkeiAsia) December 15, 2022

Communist China has been strategically & aggressively buying up US farmland near military bases, threatening our food supply & our national security. Proud to work w/ @RepStefanik & @RepRickCrawford to strengthen our oversight of their malicious activity.https://t.co/HUrVhr79Cd

— Ashley Hinson (@RepAshleyHinson) December 13, 2022

Daily Caller provided more context on the Stefanik & Crawford bill:

The Daily Caller first obtained the legislation, which will expand reporting and increase the transparency of foreign ownership so the U.S. can identify any attempted land purchases that could pose a threat to national security.

The bill is titled the Agricultural Foreign Investment Transparency Act.

Lawmakers sounded the alarm on this issue when Chinese real estate buyers began purchasing land near U.S. military bases.

The Chinese also became the biggest foreign land buyers in the U.S. after purchasing around $6.1 billion in real estate in 2021.

 

Foreign investors – including China – own roughly 38 million acres of American farmland. That’s why I helped introduce the Agriculture Foreign Investment Transparency Act to monitor foreign purchases of U.S. farmland & protect our national & food security.https://t.co/ESFg8nmenk

— Rep. Randy Feenstra (@RepFeenstra) December 13, 2022

I'm not really concerned about Gates' drop in the bucket. China is a different matter but even they only old about 190,000 acres. This chart is from CRS reports Congress .gov. It shows all the foreign countries who own U.S. Farmland. Should we be concerned about them too? pic.twitter.com/N9MkWXtrWv

— WEF Watch (@AnnaMon25579219) December 10, 2022

According to The Epoch Times, Kristi Noem has also proposed legislation to combat this growing threat:

The statement revealed that Noem and state legislators planned to create a new board, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States–South Dakota, to review proposed agricultural land purchases by foreign entities.

The board, which would consist of three ex officio members and two experts in the agricultural industry and national security, would recommend either approval or denial of land sales.

“We grow the world’s food, and we need to protect the security of that food supply for our kids,” said state Sen. Erin Tobin, a sponsor of the proposed legislation.