Brooke Rollins, the new head of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), told Breitbart News last week that one of her top priorities in her new role is something many of us have been hoping for for a long time: stopping China from buying U.S. farmland.
“One of the very, very top of the list perhaps is the Chinese purchase of our farmland. A lot of that land is around some of our military outposts,” she said.
Back in January, I wrote about how, as of 2023, the USDA reported that “46 million acres of crop, pasture, and forest lands were held by investors from outside of the United States.” That’s 3.6% of all public land in the U.S. While Chinese land ownership actually declined a bit in 2023, investments from countries like Canada, Australia, Italy, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom were on the rise. Canadians currently own more U.S. land than any other foreigners.
Several states have already been working toward or have passed laws that impose restrictions or outright bans. According to data gathered by Voice of America, “As of mid-December of last year, 215 bills restricting property ownership by foreign entities have been introduced across 40 states, of which 164 prohibit or otherwise restrict Chinese citizens from purchasing or owning some form of property.”
Rollins, who was the head of the America First Policy Institute before her confirmation as the secretary of agriculture earlier this month, pointed out that she’s a huge believer in the 10th Amendment and the “laboratories of democracy.” And while she’s helped many of those states in the past, it’s time to look at a potential federal ban.
Hellbound and Down 