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AFBF members discuss foreign ag land ownership

The head of a state farm bureau organization says foreign ag land ownership is a top priority for the ag industry in 2024.

Mark McHargue, president of Nebraska Farm Bureau, says the issue was discussed during last week’s American Farm Bureau Federation Convention.

“We had a significant conversation about who should be regulating this. We decided that the Foreign Ownership Committee is already a multi-agency committee with the Treasury and Homeland Security on there. We feel like we need to make sure that they’re appropriately funded.”

He tells Brownfield farmland ownership by foreign adversaries hasn’t been much of an issue in Nebraska. “A lot of people think about China in this situation. We do not have a lot of Chinese owned land in Nebraska, even nationally China is about number 13.”

But he says the state has a number of private holdings.