Ag Land Foreign Owned
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson. House Republicans may try to attach several bills to a must-pass funding measure needed by month’s end to avert a government shutdown.
Among those is the Protecting American Agriculture from Foreign Adversaries Act, introduced by Washington Republican Dan Newhouse, that focuses countries like China from owning U.S. farmland, especially near sensitive military sites …
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.”
The Newhouse bill would also ensure a continued seat at the table for the USDA on the Treasury-led panel that oversees such buys …
NEWHOUSE … “The People’s Republic of China is only interested in reaping every possible benefit from U.S. land, without giving back or considering our future to sustain an independent energy and food production. The U.S. cannot become dependent on our adversaries for our domestic food supply.”
Michigan’s John Moolenaar, who chairs the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, opposes a Chinese EV battery firm’s land buy in that state …
MOOLENAAR … “Gotion is a Chinese-based company that is buying farmland. It is a hundred miles from a National Guard location where a lot of training is done.”
China is thought to currently own just a few hundred thousand acres of U.S. farmland.
