Foreign Owned Ag Land Pt 1

Foreign Owned Ag Land Pt 1

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
From the Ag Information Center, I’m Bob Larson with today’s Fruit Grower Report. Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran would be banned from owning U.S. agricultural land under legislation just advanced by a House panel.

Last year’s first attempt failed to get Senate approval, but this year, Washington Republican Dan Newhouse says Russia could be the difference…

NEWHOUSE … “Given the horrific events in Ukraine at the hands of Russia and the Putin regime. As many members of this committee know, China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran are not our allies.”

Federal law, Newhouse says, aside from reporting, currently imposes no restrictions on foreign farmland ownership …

NEWHOUSE … “This is about our country’s national security, in ensuring that adversaries like China, like Russia, like North Korea, or Iran, do not gain a foothold on American soil.”

At last count, China, Russia, and Iran account for a combined 200,000 acres of foreign-owned ag land, less than seven-tenths of one percent …

NEWHOUSE … “The Peoples’ Republic of China is only interested in reaping every possible benefit from U.S. land without giving back or considering our future, to sustain independent energy and food production. The U.S. cannot become dependent on our adversaries for our domestic food supply.”

Allies Canada, the Netherlands, Italy, and Germany hold the lions’ share of foreign-owned US ag land at just over 35 million acres, just under 3%.

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