Chinese Farmland Purchases Pt 2
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson. With a growing number of American farmland purchases by foreign buyers, should we be doing a better job of recording these transactions?U.S. Representative Dan Newhouse says if we don’t have a full understanding of how large the issue is, it’s hard to control, but there is a procedure USDA should be following …
NEWHOUSE … “I think there’s substantial underreporting. And so that’s why we’re essentially asking the agency for an audit so that we can increase the accuracy of the information we have.”
From 2010 to 2020, Newhouse says, China’s ownership of American farmland multiplied 25 times …
NEWHOUSE … “That’s only what’s being reported. I think we don’t know what we don’t know type of thing. I think there’s a lot of activity happening that we are not aware of. And so, we’re trying to tighten up and make that the rules are being followed and that we’re gathering the information that we need.”
Newhouse says we need to know what the numbers truly are …
NEWHOUSE … “The trend is very alarming. It goes from almost nothing 10 years ago to a very large number today, of what we know. And, this is something that we absolutely want to get a handle on before it gets totally out of control.”
Newhouse says transparency in the reporting process of foreign ag land purchases is not asking too much.