Senate Ag Hearing

On September 27, the Senate Ag Committee held a hearing entitled “Foreign Ownership in U.S. Agriculture” The witnesses in the hearing were:

Below are some high-level takeaways on some of the key issues covered in the hearing prepared by Delta Strategy Group.

Chair Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)

It is vital that USDA has permanent representation on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. As foreign entities continue to expand their acquisition of American food and ag assets, American farmers deserve to know that these transactions receive proper scrutiny. We must also be conscious of our history of discriminating against immigrants who want to participate in our ag economy.

Ranking Member John Boozman (R-AR)

Today’s hearing is a good first step in bringing more information to the discussion. We need to better understand the problem before we can provide a better solution. My hope is at the end of this hearing we will have a better idea of what dangerous foreign ownership of U.S. farmland poses to our country.
We should consider the impact of the Federal government becoming more involved with the acquisition of American ag land. This could have a tangible effect on asset values and liquidity that may hinder investment in rural America. There are other entities that are not foreign that are acquiring large amounts of American ag land, and these purchases also impact farmers ability to have land access.

Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-MI)

When foreign investors own American farmland and agricultural processing capacity, it can put our country and domestic food supply and local communities at risk. Right now, we do not know the full extent of the risk at hand. Outdated reporting systems and a lack of auditing at both a state and federal level leave us with incomplete information and many questions.

Senator James Lankford (R-OK)

There is a tremendous rise of foreign ownership of U.S. land around our country. We should restrict federal assistance for foreign held real estate holdings and broaden disclosure requirements for land purchases made by foreign entities through the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (AFIDA) process.

Senator Mike Rounds (R-SD)

While Chinese entities currently hold less than one percent of foreign acres in the U.S. States, the volume of their holdings have surged exponentially over the last thirteen years, from roughly 13,000 acres to over 352,000 acres. China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran should not be allowed to purchase U.S. farmland and agricultural businesses.

Senator John Tester (R-MT)

Food security is national security. Foreign adversaries such as China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea should not be allowed any claim to U.S. soil.

Gloria Montaño Greene, Deputy Under Secretary, USDA

USDA works with local law offices and realtor associations to ensure that land buyers are aware of the need to report their purchase if they are covered by the statute. This creates a complicated patchwork that makes continuous tracking and reporting foreign-owned agricultural land very challenging.
Any system for tracking land purchases and owners would be complicated, expensive, and create a potential risk to producer privacy, the price of agricultural land, and individual American seller interests. As Congress considers the issues around the ownership of agricultural land it will be essential for them to consider a system that balances these issues and is workable for USDA, producers, landowners, and county government staff on the ground.

Harrison Pittman, Director, National Agricultural Law Center

There are not many states left that have not had at least one or more proposals at the state level to restrict foreign land ownership. There is virtually unanimous agreement among persons at all levels of government and in the private sector that, currently, there is no reliable data on the amount of U.S. farmland owned by nonresident aliens or on recent trends of such ownership. Such information would be very helpful to the Congress if it wishes to formulate and implement a national policy on nonresident aliens owning farmland in the U.S. Clearly, efforts need to be started now to produce useful and meaningful information.

Dr. David L. Ortega, Associate Professor, Michigan State University

The foreign acquisition of U.S. ag land by foreign entities does not threaten our ability to produce food, but it does raise specific and sometimes local concerns. Foreign ownership of U.S. agricultural land is a nuanced and multifaceted topic with implications that intersect with economics, geopolitics, national security, and food security. The available data suggests that while foreign holdings have been rising, they still represent a small fraction of privately held agricultural land, with a majority of that ownership rooted in entities from friendly nations. Chinese ownership, a recent focal point of concern, remains marginal in regard to the size of holdings compared to other countries.