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SD Senate Ag Committee considers another foreign ag land ownership bill

South Dakota agriculture groups say requiring the governor’s approval for foreign ag land purchases could have unintended consequences.

Senate Bill 185 would create a 5-person board called the South Dakota Committee on Foreign Investment to investigate ag land purchases or leases with 160 acres or less, but the governor gets final approval.

During Tuesday’s South Dakota Senate Agriculture Committee hearing, Pork Producers President Adam Krause said the pork industry has several concerns about the bill including relationships with businesses.

“South Dakota families grow pigs for entities that originiate from other countries and depend on that for their livelihoods. Many pig farmers buy young weaned pigs from South Dakota, other states and sometimes, other countries, like Canada.”

American Farm Bureau Federation Vice-President, South Dakota Farm Bureau President and farmer Scott Vanderwal said it’s too big of a decision to leave in the hands of one person and the bill brings more questions than answers.

“We don’t know who future governors will be nor what their philosophies will be,” he said. “Personal property rights are also a priority issue for our members. Under the bill, the committee has authority to do a 20 year look back on farmland. If they find a violation, the land is forfeited or the lease is terminated. There are a couple of issues here. First of all, 20 years is a long time and this could lead to major and messy lawsuits. Second, there’s nothing in the section that directs what the state will do with the land if it is forfeited to the state. Will they sell it? Keep it and lease it? We don’t know because it doesn’t say. And what about research?”

Vanderwal told lawmakers it would be best to leave the issue up to the federal government. In response, bill sponsor Senator Erin Tobin said “the people in my district feel we need to address the issue at the state level and those people are members of your organizations as well. So we owe it to them to dig through this and figure it out.”

The bill passed out of the Senate Ag Committee on the same day with seven votes.

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