Nearly one-quarter of state legislatures considering modifications to or adding new foreign ag land ownership laws this year were successful. Micah Brown with the National Ag Law Center says those states include Arkansas, Tennessee, North Dakota, Florida, Idaho, Montana, Utah and Virginia. And the trend is to restrict investments from four countries including China, Iran, North Korea and Russia.
“With the 2023 laws, some of them are using federal definitions like foreign adversaries determined by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce. The big four are included in that definition.”
Brown suggests it was more difficult for many states, like Missouri and South Dakota, to overcome the politics from outside interests to pass a bill. For the states that passed legislation, he says more responsibility is placed on land buyers and enforcement.
“Just about all of them had an enforcement provision in them and they’ve been good with giving the direction on the agency,” says Brown. “Just about all of them gave authority to the state’s attorney general.”
According to Brown, many states are likely to present similar bills restricting foreign ag land ownership in 2024. And, the Farm Bill could be an opportunity to address the issue on a federal level.
EDITOR’S TAKE:
This should certainly put foreign land buyers, especially those in the countries mentioned in the article, on notice that it will not be business as usual. While such laws will not put an end to foreign ownership, they can make it more difficult for those considered our adversaries. It may cause them to at least look elsewhere for their investment. As stated previously in the AIR, countries like China have a huge problem with producing enough food domestically to feed their population. The only other option is to import the food to fill the gaps between production domestically and consumption/demand. These new laws may restrict land purchases in the U.S. but force our adversaries to make friends elsewhere, which could create cause for concern in the long-run if our exports start to decline significantly. It’s a real catch 22!
