Trump administration seeks to ban China from buying US farms

Mint

09-07-2025

The Trump administration has a message for China: Keep off the farm.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Tuesday the administration will work with state lawmakers to ban sales of U.S. farmland to buyers from China and other countries of concern, citing national-security interests.
Rollins, joined by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, said the government is ratcheting up scrutiny on existing land owned by Chinese buyers and is looking at ways to potentially claw back past purchases.
'We'll never let foreign adversaries control our land," said Rollins.
State and federal lawmakers for years have warned that China and other countries could use U.S. farmland to facilitate spying or wield influence over the U.S. food supply chain. Chinese-owned entities hold nearly 300,000 acres—roughly 0.02%—of U.S. farmland, according to Agriculture Department data, an area about the size of Los Angeles.
Republicans and Democrats alike have sought to curb foreign ownership of American farmland, at times seeking to increase government scrutiny of purchases and investments. Critics have raised fears that foreign owners could drive up land prices or sidestep environmental rules.
China's government has played down such concerns as overblown. Representatives of China's embassy in Washington, D.C., had no immediate comment.
Rollins said on Tuesday that U.S. farms are under threat from China and other countries that are trying to infiltrate American agricultural research and steal technology.
'No longer can foreign adversaries assume we aren't watching," Hegseth said.
Some state and municipal lawmakers have taken steps in recent years to block China-backed investment or ownership in U.S. agriculture. The city of Grand Forks, N.D., in 2023 halted the construction of a Chinese-owned corn mill after a U.S. Air Force official said the planned $700 million facility could represent a national-security risk because of its proximity to a nearby base.
Some China-based ownership of U.S. farmland involves prominent U.S. agriculture companies. Pork giant Smithfield Foods and seed and pesticide supplier Syngenta have both faced criticism from government officials and lawmakers because of their Chinese owners.
Smithfield is majority-owned by Chinese pork company WH Group and Syngenta is a subsidiary of China National Chemical. The companies' American leaders have pushed back, saying their China-based owners have helped them invest in U.S. farmers and create jobs.
Smithfield in the past represented roughly half of the U.S. farmland owned by Chinese entities, via its Hong Kong-based parent. Much of that had been tied up in hundreds of company-owned hog farms and processing plants, according to federal data.
WH Group acquired Smithfield in 2013, aiming to harness its technology and expertise to boost WH's operations in China. Smithfield returned to the U.S. public markets earlier this year, raising roughly $500 million after listing its shares on the Nasdaq Stock Market. WH Group owns about 93% of Smithfield's shares.
'We're an American company, American management team and made in America," Smithfield Chief Executive Shane Smith said in an interview earlier this year.
Smithfield last year sold more than 40,000 acres of its U.S. farmland, leaving it with roughly 85,000 acres. Shares of Smithfield fell about 1% on Tuesday.
Syngenta, the largest pesticide seller in the U.S., has said it owns a small amount of land for research, development and regulatory trials.
The company, which employs about 4,000 people in the U.S., has previously faced calls to sell its farmland holdings. Two years ago, Arkansas ordered Syngenta to sell about 160 acres in the state, where it maintained an agricultural research facility with a few dozen employees. Syngenta at the time called the state's decision shortsighted.
A Syngenta spokesman said Tuesday that the company is in the process of selling its remaining U.S. farmland and currently owns less than 1,000 acres in the country.
Write to Patrick Thomas at [e-mail]