Foreign Ownership

Who owns United States farmland? The most recent report from the U.S. Farm Service Agency says that as of December 31, 2011 foreign investors hold an interest in 25.7 million acres of American agricultural land, which sounds like a whopping amount of acreage. In reality it’s approximately 2% of all privately held U.S. agricultural land, and 1% of all land in the U.S.. Interestingly, forest land accounted for 54% of all foreign held ag acreage, cropland for 19%, and pasture and other ag land for 27%. All fifty states report having foreign held agricultural land. Canadian investors own the most U.S. ag land with 7.2 million acres, 1.8 million is owned by foreign investors from the Netherlands, 655 thousand acres is German owned, 570 thousand is UK owned, and Portugal owns 475 thousand acres. What defines a “foreign land holder”? It’s a foreign person who is not a citizen of the United States and does not have permanent residence in the U.S., foreign governments, and U.S. entities in which there is significant foreign interest or substantial control.