Ag Policy Blog

The U.S. House of Representatives has again passed a bill that would increase scrutiny of farmland purchases by foreign governments.

The House on Monday night passed H.R. 1713, the Agricultural Risk Review Act, led by Rep. Frank Lucas, R-Okla. The bill would permanently add the Secretary of Agriculture to the interagency committee that oversees national security risks of foreign investments, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).

The bill makes permanent language that was passed in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2024.

And the bill passed Monday under suspension of House rules, meaning there was no roll call vote and the bill drew no debate opposition.

The House has repeatedly passed similar bills in recent years. It will now be up to the U.S. Senate to either pass Lucas's bill or pass a similar measure.

The bill also requires CFIUS to consider referrals from USDA to examine land transactions to determine whether more scrutiny of the purchase is warranted.

"Our geopolitical adversaries are eager to exploit vulnerabilities in critical supply chains, such as our food supply, the inclusion of the Secretary of Ag in reviews of ag-related transactions is just plain common sense," Lucas said during a floor speech on the bill.

According to USDA's annual report, nearly 45 million acres of farm ground and privately-held forests -- about 3.5% -- is owned by foreign buyers.

The bill is directed heavily at land ownership by Chinese companies, as well as countries such as Iran, North Korea and Russia.

USDA shows Chinese companies reported owning 277,336 acres of land as of Dec. 23, 2023. Murphy Brown LLC (Smithfield Foods) owns 89,218 acres and Brazos Highland Properties LP owns 86,994 acres, and "were by far the largest Chinese holders of Agricultural land." Other Chinese-owned companies with large holdings include Murphy Brown of Missouri (Smithfield/WH Holdings) with another 43,091; Harvest Texas, LLC owns 29,705 acres; and U.S. Agri Chemicals Corp owns 11,263 acres. Together, those five companies account for 94% of all Chinese land holdings.

USDA's 2023 report, the latest available, also revised down the amount of Chinese-owned land from the 2022 report, which was listed at 346,915 acres.

States with the most land owned by Chinese investors include Texas with 123,708 acres; North Carolina, 44,263 acres; Missouri, 42,905 acres; Utah, 33,035 acres; and Florida, 12,798 acres. Those five states account for 93% of Chinese-owned acreage. USDA noted Texas, in particular, has a lot of Chinese-own land tied to wind-energy investments.

Chinese ownership of land has become a growing concern since a company, Fufeng Group, attempted to buy roughly 300 acres of farmland outside of the Grand Forks, N.D., Air Force Base in late 2021. CFIUS examined that purchase, but concluded the committee "does not have jurisdiction" over the project. Still, leaders in the U.S. Air Force called for state and local officials to cancel the project.

States have since then tightened their own laws to restrict Chinese ownership of farm ground.

Looking broadly at foreign-held farm and forestry land, USDA reports 5.6 million acres of Texas is foreign owned, followed by 3.5 million acres in Maine and 2.5 million acres in Colorado.

Canadian investors own about 15.3 million acres, or nearly 33% of all foreign land, followed by the Netherlands (11%), Italy (6%), the United Kingdom (6%), and Germany (5%).

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has said the Trump administration also is looking for ways to restrict the sale of farm ground to China.

USDA annual reports on foreign land ownership: https://www.fsa.usda.gov/…

Chris Clayton can be reached at Chris.Clayton@dtn.com

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