Protecting American Farmland Bill Pt 2
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson. Last week, U.S. Representative Dan Newhouse’s bill, Protecting American Farmland from Foreign Adversaries Act passed in the House.
But, Newhouse says some people don’t understand, given the seemingly small amount of farmland that China and other adversaries currently own, why this is such a big deal …
NEWHOUSE … “You’re right. A lot of people, scholarly, you know, think-tank types say, oh this isn’t really a problem. They only own several billion dollars’ worth of assets and a small percentage of our total farmland. My response is exactly what you’re saying, we want to stop this before it becomes a huge issue.”
Because, Newhouse says it’s a growing problem …
NEWHOUSE … “Over the last ten years the amount of agricultural land purchased by the CCP has increased by a factor of 10. So, if we just ignore this, in another decade I’m not sure what it would look like.”
So, this, Newhouse says is a safeguard …
NEWHOUSE … “This is very much a preventative action, something (chuckle), you can use any ag analogy you want, but ‘I want to make sure that we close this barn door before the horse gets out.’ I don’t want to wake up in another decade and think, man we should’ve done something about this.”
And like Newhouse said yesterday, “the issue of food security truly is national security.”
