United States Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) is reintroducing legislation to target foreign ownership of U.S. farmland by countries like China and Russia but hopes to attach it to the must-pass defense bill.
Longtime Ag Senator Chuck Grassley is reintroducing with other Ag lawmakers, the ?Food Security is National Security Act?
Grassley says three-percent of U.S. farmland is held by foreign firms, including 550,000 acres in the state of Iowa alone.
The bill requires the USDA and FDA to have permanent seats on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or ?CFIUS?–an inter-agency panel that reviews the national security impacts of foreign investments in the United States.
However, Grassley says that effort has come up short.
U.S. lawmakers increasingly point to food as a national security issue, as Russia prosecutes its war in Ukraine and halts the Black Sea grain deal, China threatens Taiwan and North Korea and Iran develop or test nuclear weapons.
USDA reports China, Russia and Iran accounted for a combined 200,000 acres of foreign owned ag land in the United States 2019, China accounts for most of the land, largely by owning Smithfield Foods.
Allies Canada, the Netherlands, Italy and Germany hold the most foreign-owned U.S. ag ground with over 35 million acres.
