Tag: U.S. Farmland

GOP Reps Push Bill to Ban China from Buying U.S. Farmland

Michigan Star Staff

Two Republican members of Congress introduced a bill Wednesday that would prohibit nonresident aliens, companies and other entities associated with the Chinese government from buying agricultural land in the U.S.

Washington Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Dan Newhouse’s Prohibition of Agricultural Land for the People’s Republic of China Act would also ban those interests’ participation in U.S. Agriculture Department (USDA) programs beyond food safety inspections, according to her press release. Chinese foreign investors held more than 191,000 acres of U.S. agricultural and non-agricultural land in 2019, the USDA indicated.

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‘Nearly Doubled’ Foreign Investment in U.S. Farmland Comes Under Scrutiny

The Center Square

A coalition of 130 lawmakers sent a letter to a top federal watchdog raising the alarm about a spike in foreign ownership of U.S. farmland.

The letter calls for the Government Accountability Office to conduct a full review of that foreign ownership, its potential impact on trade, national security, food security and what the federal government is doing about it, if anything.

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Foreign Investment in U.S. Farmland May Be a National Security Issue, According to Expert

The Center Square

Foreign investment in U.S. farmland has tripled in the past 10 years, reporters at a non-profit investigative journalism group found.

Investigate Midwest used U.S. Department of Agriculture data to call attention to this trend. Farmer Joe Maxwell, co-founder of the group Farm Action, told The Center Square that control of U.S. farmland by foreign investors is worrisome on a number of fronts.

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