Farmed Out

American farms are often no longer American:

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's most recent report, "46 million acres of crop, pasture and forest lands were held by investors from outside of the United States" at the end of 2023, and that number, which totals about 3.6% of all private land, seems to be rising. Canada is the largest foreign landholder in our country by far, followed by European countries like the Netherlands, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Between 2022 and 2023, Chinese land ownership actually declined a bit, though 2024 numbers aren't yet available. Land ownership by Iran and Cuba also declined, but Canada and Australia have increased their stake with plans to use the land for renewable energy purposes. While the federal response to the situation has been slow and controversial, about half of all states have put restrictions in place to prevent or limit foreign entities from owning American land. In 2023 alone, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Virginia, Indiana, Montana, Idaho, Utah, North Dakota, and South Dakota all passed such laws. Detractors say that these limitations will actually hurt the states' and federal economies. On Wednesday, in a bipartisan effort to combat this growing trend of foreign land ownership in the U.S., Senators John Fetterman (D-Pa.) and Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) joined together to reintroduce the Foreign Adversary Risk Management or FARM Act. According to a press release from Tuberville's office, the bill would "permanently add the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture to the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States (CFIUS), the governmental body that oversees the vetting process of foreign investment and acquisition of American companies. Currently, CFIUS does not directly consider the needs of the agriculture industry when reviewing foreign investment and ownership in domestic businesses."

They literally bought the farm...