US agriculture secretary calls for federal action on foreign farm ownership
The new head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture said seeking a federal solution to ban China from purchasing farmland in the United States will be one of her top priorities.
'One of the very, very top of the list perhaps is the Chinese purchase of our farmland. A lot of that land is around some of our military outposts,' Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview, the details of which were released on Tuesday.
In recent years, Chinese entities or individuals purchasing land near sensitive locations such as military installations have drawn growing scrutiny from lawmakers and security officials.
According to data from the Committee of 100, a nonprofit that advocates for Chinese Americans, as of mid-December of last year, 215 bills restricting property ownership by foreign entities have been introduced across 40 states, of which 164 prohibit or otherwise restrict Chinese citizens from purchasing or owning some form of property.
Thirty-six of the bills have passed, and 16 of them limit Chinese citizens from purchasing or owning some form of property, the Committee of 100 said on its website.
In her interview with Breitbart News, Rollins said that the Trump administration is looking to take these state-level legislative concerns to the federal level.
'For the last several years my organization America First Policy Institute, we actually worked among multiple states to get states to act on this to pass state legislation [on banning Chinese purchase of farmland], but we also are looking at a federal solution too,' she told Breitbart on Friday.
She said there is 'no doubt' that the people are concerned about Chinese foreign investment of farmland, and Americans want U.S. farmland to be owned by fellow Americans as opposed to foreigners such as those loyal to the Chinese Communist Party.
She also praised President Donald Trump for promoting an 'America First' ideology that has posed China as a potential security threat to the U.S.
A 2023 report containing data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency shows that Canada currently owns the largest amount of foreign-held agricultural and nonagricultural land, with 33%. In comparison, China holds slightly less than 1% of foreign-held farmland.
Other notable countries owning U.S. agricultural land include the Netherlands (11%), Italy (6%), the United Kingdom (6%), and Germany (5%). Collectively, these countries account for 28% of foreign-held agricultural land in the U.S., totaling approximately 5 million hectares, according to the Farm Service Agency report.
In the report, the USDA noted that despite China's relatively low percentage holding of foreign-owned farmland, 'there is considerable interest in their holdings.'
Indiana is one example of a state that took action over Chinese ownership of agriculture land.
In March 2024, Indiana State Representative Kendell Culp's legislation to 'protect Hoosier farmland and military bases from foreign adversaries' was signed into law.
"Our foreign adversaries like China and Russia should not be able to buy up Hoosier land, which could compromise our ability to protect our food and national security," Culp said in a press release about the legislation.
"We can't afford to let even a fraction more of our valuable farmland to be gobbled up," he said.
The Committee of 100 said the development of legislation restricting foreign-owned land ownership would 'legitimize harmful and xenophobic claims about immigrants that would exacerbate rising anti-Asian violence that has negatively affected U.S. citizens and non-citizens alike.'
'Should they take effect, these laws would also disproportionately affect a wide range of people of color living in the United States; most of the countries targeted in this legislation are majority nonwhite,' the organization said on its website.
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