Lawmakers are taking aim at China with recently introduced legislation that would bring more oversight on foreign ownership of U.S. farmland.
A group of bipartisan lawmakers introduced the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Improvements Act (AFIDA) this month. The move was first reported by Fox News Digital.
The legislation seeks to implement recommendations published by the Government Accountability Office in January 2024, which found the AFIDA was ill-equipped to combat foreign ownership of American agricultural land.
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Some of its other measures propose requiring AFIDA reporting for foreign persons holding more than 1% interest in U.S. farmland, boosting the sharing of information between the Committee of Foreign Investment in the United States and the Department of Agriculture and updating the AFIDA handbook, according to Fox News Digital.
It would “tell China ‘no,’ basically,” FOX Business’ Ashley Webster said Monday on “Varney & Co.”
More than 277,000 acres of agricultural land was owned by Chinese investors as of the end of 2023, with that land located in states “across the country,” according to a USDA report.
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Overall, foreign investor holdings of U.S. farmland amounted to nearly 45 million acres at the end of that year, it said.
U.S. farmland owned by foreign entities has seen a jump between 2014 and 2023, according to Webster.
States have been taking action on the issue in recent years as well, with Webster noting many “already have some kind of legislation that prohibits or limits the purchase of ag land by foreign entities and governments.”
Half of U.S. states bar foreign ownership of farmland “as of April this year,” Webster reported.
The U.S. had 1.3 billion acres of privately held agricultural land at the end of 2023, according to the USDA.
Chinese entity ownership of American farmland has been a hot-button issue in recent years, particularly as conflict and competition between China and the U.S. grows.
Fox News Digital’s Dierdre Heavey contributed to this report.
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