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Foreign ownership of farmland could be a focus of next Congress

Foreign ownership of U.S. farmland could be a focus of the next Congress.

U.S. Representative Randy Feenstra of Iowa tells Brownfield he’s written the U.S. Treasury Secretary, the Defense Secretary, and Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack about his concerns.

“Here’s the bottom line is that we have 37.6 million acres of U.S. farmland that is in the hands of foreign ownership. That’s bigger than Iowa, that’s more land than Iowa has. So this is really serious.”

The Republican also joined House Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Glenn GT Thompson in demanding a full report on foreign owned farmland from the Government Accountability Office.

“When we saw that in North Dakota there’s land purchased by the communist party of China that is right adjacent to an American military base installation there. So we have to make sure states understand and start creating rules.”

Feenstra says American farmers should not have to compete with foreign investors and geopolitical adversaries for fertile land to plant their crops and earn a living.

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