South Dakota Gov Kristi Noem wants next year’s legislature to pass a bill barring the purchase of ag land in the state by foreign interests – defined as any foreign person, government, business, or organization controlled by one of those.
Noem says passage would mean being “able to prevent nations who hate us – like Communist China – from buying up our state’s agriculture land.”
She adds “We cannot allow the Chinese Communist Party to continue to buy up our nation’s food supply, so South Dakota will lead the charge on this vital national security issue.”
The legislation would create a new board, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States – South Dakota, with the power to investigate proposed foreign purchases of ag land and recommend approval or denial to the governor.
The committee would include the governor’s General Counsel, the Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources, the state Homeland Security director, an ag industry expert who owns at least 160 acres in South Dakota, and a foreign policy expert.
If the bill passes, the committee’s jurisdiction would start next July 1st and cover any transaction – purchase, transfer, grant, or inheritance – of any number of acres of ag land involving a foreign entity.
State Senator Eric Tobin and Representative-elect Gary Cammack will carry the legislation in their respective chambers.
More than 35 million acres of the 900 million acres of US agricultural land is owned by foreign individuals or entities. 30% or 10.5 million acres of the 35 million acres is owned by Canadians. China controls about 192,000 acres or 0.7%. Foreign ownership is likely higher than the official numbers because there are many ways to hide the real owners. The following article gives a country-by-country breakdown of foreign ownership:
Foreign Farmland Ownership in the United States (https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF11977)
Some States such as Iowa and Minnesota have strong laws in this matter so I don’t think Governor Noem is correct when she claims that South Dakota will be leading the charge. There is also strong bipartisan support in Congress to tackle any foreign ownership, including Canadian, of US ag land with some kind of federal legislation (https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/19/china-buying-us-farms-foreign-purchase-499893).
Whether China hates the US as the Governor claims, they still purchase annually tens of billions of dollars’ worth of agricultural commodities.
so what’s your plan to stop or take back land from hostile foreign govt’s or governments that may not be, that hold or want to buy land?
your are you all about ,letting the fox run the hen house????? haven’t we learned our lesson from covid and the supply chain China makes close to 70 if not 80% of our pharmaceuticals medication and about the same with our microchips what could possibly go wrong if they own more than a third or 50% of our agricultural land.
but if you’re all about the almighty dollar and sell to the highest bidder regardless of the ramifications by all means see you at the gulag that’s irf they still use them. remember what they do to their own people whether it’s the Hong Kong protesters or the uihgers in work camps ….oh I will remind you they’re all dead pushing up daisies.