American farmland purchases by foreigners raise concerns

Farmland sales have been hot for months, but it's not just Americans buying up acreage. While institutional investors and foreign countries own less than 3 percent of American farmland (according to 2019 Agriculture Department statistics), "concerns continue to mount about who is actually buying up acres during this most recent 'land rush' across agriculture, Victoria Myers reports for DTN/The Progressive Farmer. Though 22 states have laws banning foreign or corporate farmland ownership, many corporations create shell companies to obscure who owns the land.

"Family Farm Action Alliance, a Missouri-based group focused on power monopolies that control this country's food and agriculture sectors, says the issue of foreign ownership of agricultural land is common worldwide," Myers reports. The organization believes that "foreign ownership of agricultural land is not just an issue of national security but also extracts wealth from rural communities. [Co-founder and president Joe] Maxwell says some owners bring in their own inputs, control output and bypass the area's infrastructure. In these cases, more than denying young farmers ownership opportunity, the arrangement can negatively impact growth and economic vitality for an entire rural community."

Many Chinese investors produce food on American farms and export it to China, according to a Newsweek op-ed by Sam Abodo, a researcher at the American Foreign Policy Council. He noted that the Shuanghui Group bought Smithfield Foods in 2013, acquiring with it 146,000 acres. In April 2020, as President Trump invoked the Defense Production Act to compel meat processors to remain open, Smithfield warned that the nation was "perilously close to the edge in terms of our meat supply." However, at the same time Smithfield exported a record amount of pork to China. 

DTN editor Chris Clayton notes: "While Chinese land ownership draws the attention, it is, in fact, Canada that owns the most U.S. farmland, at 7.48 million acres. This number includes 2.27 million acres of cropland and 4.7 million acres of forest."