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Updates to MO foreign ag land ownership could be addressed outside state legislature

A state senator tells Brownfield a future ballot measure could be how Missouri addresses foreign ag land ownership.

Rusty Black sponsored one of the bills proposing changes to foreign ag land ownership in the state. He says action may not happen immediately.

“We’ve got to make sure a law or anything done to our constitution is well thought out.”

Black is one of seven state senators serving on a special committee appointed last week called the Senate Select Committee on Protection of Missouri Assets from Foreign Adversaries. He says foreign ag land ownership falls under this committee’s umbrella.

“We need to have as few unintended consequnces as possible in the solution. The agriculture I knew in the 1960s and early 1970s, when I was a boy, has certainly changed. It’s a worldwide agriculture industry today.”

Missouri’s Senate Ag Committee heard three foreign ag land ownership bills in January, but there still hasn’t been a vote. The Missouri House Ag Committee heard a foreign land ownership bill earlier this month and it’s awaiting floor action.