Senators Stabenow and Ernst Introduce Bill to Limit Chinese Land Ownership

This article is reprinted form the June 23 National Grain & Feed Association newseltter.

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, introduced a bill to limit China’s ability to purchase farmland in the U.S. and increase oversight of foreign investment in U.S. agriculture.

The senators said they are responding to “reports of China threatening America’s food supply and posing an even greater national security risk by acquiring U.S. farmland near military installations.”

The Foreign Agricultural Restrictionsto Maintain Local Agriculture and National Defense (FARMLAND) Act would amend the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978, which was established to develop a nationwide system for collecting information on foreign ownership of U.S. agricultural land.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), foreign ownership and investment in U.S. agricultural land has nearly doubled over the last decade, noted an announcement issued by Sen. Ernst.

According to the latest USDA report that includes data up to December 2021, foreign persons held an interest in 40 million acres of U.S. agricultural land.

The Stabenow-Ernst bill would:

• Update the authority of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and require CFIUS to consider retroactive divestment of real estate owned by foreign entities.

• Require the government to review the purchase or lease by a foreign entity that exceeds $5 million or 320 acres of land over the last three years.

• Give Congress more oversight on the national security risks of foreign purchase and management of U.S. agricultural land. National Grain and Feed Association 5 Return to contents June 23, 2023

• Establish greater USDA involvement in reviewing our foreign adversaries’ acquisition of land by including the Secretary of Agriculture and Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration on CFIUS.

• Develop a publicly available database of agricultural land owned by foreign persons and creating an audit.

• Prohibit participation for foreign-owned or operated land to participate in Farm Service Agency programs.

The Biden administration on May 5 published a proposal to expand the jurisdiction of the CFIUS to include foreign acquisitions of real estate within 100 miles of U.S. military bases.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Air Force declared a Chinese company’s proposed North Dakota corn mill a national security risk.

The Chinese-owned Fufeng Group purchased 300 acres of land 12 miles from Grand Forks Air Force Base.

The Grand Forks City Council unanimously voted to cancel the corn mill plant project in February.

Meanwhile, 130 lawmakers sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office last October asking for a “review of foreign investment in U.S. farmland and its impact on national security, trade, and food security as well as U.S. government efforts to monitor these acquisitions.”