U.S. to ban Chinese purchases of farmland, citing national security

U.S. Department of Agriculture chief Brooke Rollins announced Tuesday that the U.S. government will move to ban sales of farmland nationwide to Chinese buyers and other foreign adversaries, citing threats to national security and food security.

In a joint news conference with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem, Rollins said the administration would work with state partners and pursue executive actions to halt the purchases.

She also announced plans to increase oversight of existing farmland owned by entities from countries including China, Russia and Iran.

Chinese investors currently own 265,000 acres of U.S. land, according to USDA data, about half of which is tied to a single company — Smithfield Foods, which was acquired in 2013 by WH Group, a Chinese conglomerate led by tycoon Wan Long.

Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork producer, owns eight facilities in Iowa.

Chinese ownership of U.S. farmland has dropped sharply in recent years, declining from 384,000 acres in 2021.

“No longer can foreign adversaries assume we’re not watching,” Hegseth said Tuesday. He added that the Pentagon would move to bar sales of farmland to foreign adversaries near military bases and said the effort would help secure the U.S. food supply for soldiers, “especially in a contingency.”

Iowa has the strictest law in the nation to limit foreigners buying farmland, according to a 2021 report issued by the Farm Service Agency, a branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. According to 2023 data, the state had 512,383 acres of foreign-owned or leased land.

Lawmakers have stepped up scrutiny of farmland acquisitions by Chinese entities after a controversial land deal in North Dakota. In 2022, Chinese-owned Fufeng Group purchased 370 acres for a corn milling facility roughly 12 miles from Grand Forks Air Force Base. Local officials ultimately blocked the project, citing national security concerns.

The case drew attention to loopholes in the Treasury Department’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) regulations that allowed Chinese-owned firms to purchase land near military installations not formally designated as sensitive sites.