Trump Administration Unveils Plan to Ban Chinese Ownership of US Farmland and Ag

Article excerpts:

“The Trump administration is pushing to ban new Chinese ownership of American farmland and increase scrutiny of Chinese ownership of major agribusinesses such as Smithfield Foods and Syngenta.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins led a team of other Cabinet officials, Republican governors and members of Congress at USDA's headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday to announce a new "National Farm Security Action Plan" that will target China and other foreign adversaries. Rollins said the effort will "address one of the most significant national security threats facing our nation."

Rollins said U.S. agriculture is facing a threat from increased foreign ownership of U.S. food production. Farms, she said, "are weapons that can be turned against us."

"Every family, every home, every community depends on what our farmers do, and they support and sustain us, not merely by keeping us materially fed, but by keeping us spiritually strong," Rollins said. "The farms' produce is not just a commodity, it is a way of life that underpins America itself, and that's exactly why it is under threat from criminals, from political adversaries and from hostile regimes that understand our way of life as a profound and existential threat to themselves."

The security plan has seven action items, Rollins said, which include "actively engaging every level of government" to pass laws or take executive actions to ban the purchase of U.S. farmland by Chinese nationals and other foreign adversaries.

Individual states have increasingly introduced and passed legislation to ban foreign land sales to China, as well as Iran, North Korea and Russia. Bills in Congress have also repeatedly passed the House or Senate, though no specific bill has been signed into federal law.”

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