Foreign Ownership of US Cropland in Focus

Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) have introduced bipartisan legislation to increase transparency and oversight of foreign ownership in the US agricultural industry.

The Farmland Security Act of 2023 builds on the senators’ bipartisan Farmland Security Act of 2022 by ensuring that all foreign investors, including “shell companies,” who buy US agriculture land report their holding.

It also strengthens penalties for those who evade filing and invests in research to better understand the impact foreign ownership of US farmland and agricultural production capacity has on the domestic food supply, family farms and rural communities.

Current reporting shows that foreign-owned agricultural acreage has increased in recent years, but the data that has been collected is incomplete or inaccurate.

The bill takes additional steps to support transparency, collect complete and accurate data on foreign ownership and better understand the scale and impact of foreign ownership, including:

• imposing new financial penalties on foreign owners or “shell companies” who fail to report or misreport their acreage;

• requiring research into foreign ownership of agricultural production capacity and foreign participation in agricultural economic activity in the United States; and

• directing USDA to conduct an annual compliance audit to ensure accuracy and provide annual training to state and county level USDA staff on identifying non-reporting foreign-owned agricultural land.

The Farmland Security Act joins a raft of legislation aimed at restricting foriegn investment in US agriculture:

At the beginning of the year, Sens. Mike Rounds (R-SD) and Jon Tester (D-Mont) introduced Promoting Agriculture Safeguards and Security (PASS) Act of 2023 that would prevent China, Russia, Iran and North Korea from investing in, purchasing or otherwise acquiring land or businesses involved in agriculture.

In June Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-TX) introduced the Protecting American Farmland Act, proposing a 60% excise tax on "Countries of Concern" attempting to buy American farm and ranch land

The Republican Build It in America Act introduced in the house includes a provision  to deter purchases of US agricultural land from “countries of concern,” including China, Russia and Iran. It would impose a 400 percent real estate excise tax on such purchases.

Reps Mike Gallagher (R-WI) Mike Thompson (D-CA) have introduced the Protecting U.S. Farmland and Sensitive Sites From Foreign Adversaries Act,  a piece of legislation that aims to broaden the jurisdiction of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).