A new study by the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) shows a rise in the amount of U.S. ag land that’s owned by investors in foreign countries.
“Foreign ownership of U.S. ag land increased by 1.6 million acres, reaching a total of 45.9 million acres, which represents 3.6 percent of total privately-held ag land in the United States,” according to Danny Munch, an economist with the American Farm Bureau Federation. He says only a small portion of that farmland is owned by China and other adversarial nations.
“Interestingly, land ownership by Chinese, Russian, and Iranian-based investors decreased by 36,000 acres, or nine percent, to the smallest levels in a few years.”
Munch says our neighbors to the north own a majority of foreign-owned farmland.
“Canada leads overwhelmingly with ownership of U.S. ag land in terms of foreign owners, holding 15.4 million acres or about a third of all foreign owned ag land in the country. Following Canada, you have investors from Netherlands, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Germany, which holds half-holdings ranging from 5.2 million acres down to 2.5 million acres. Collectively those nations hold 62 percent of all foreign owned ag land in the United States.”
He says many of those investments are tied to timber and renewable energy. But, there are still concerns regarding foreign ownership of American farmland.
“Generally, concerns about foreign ownership of U.S. farmland often center around national security and food security. Some worry that adversarial nations could use land acquisitions for purposes contra to U.S. interests, like controlling critical resources. Others are concerned about converting farmland into non-ag uses like renewable energy projects.”
According to the survey, China owns 27-percent less farmland in 2023 than they did in 2021.
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