Why are foreign governments allowed to buy farmland in America?

38 comments

1. It is, it’d be nice if it stopped, and is it me or does this feel like an essay question?

2. They shouldn’t be allowed to, in my opinion.

   Foreign *individuals* who are in the US under legal circumstances and are allowed to do business here… I have no problem with them buying land. Foreign governments and their representatives are another thing completely.

3. America generally practices free trade, so it doesn’t particularly matter if the corn comes from domestic or foreign farms other than the cost of shipping. It might be a problem if a single foreign entity owned over a third of staple crop land or something, but we’re nowhere close to that.

   Depending on how the farm bill works, it may even be beneficial for the government by disqualifying the farms from subsidies.

4. How exactly would you stop this?
   Say laws were in place stopping this.
   XYZ government could just send an agent to become a legal resident and buy land.

5. The real question is, why not? What exactly is it you’re worried about?

6. According to a google search I just did there are 878.6 million acres of farmland in the US. I do not think it is a threat if China owns .04% of that.

7. Indiana actually just passed a law on this

8. First of all, I’m not seeing anything online about foreign governments buying up American farmland, but I admit I only checked out a couple of links, although I did find one that said almost 400,000 acres is Chinese-owned, but it didn’t say it was the Chinese government, just Chinese companies and individuals. There was a congressman’s webpage that implied it was the Chinese government buying the land, so maybe that’s where you’re getting that idea. Secondly, the proportion of US farmland owned by foreign corporations or individuals (or I guess governments, if that really is a thing) is only about 3%, and by far the biggest chunk of that is Canadian-owned, which is pretty much the last country I’d be worried about. There is, of course, a lot of foreign land owned by American companies and individuals. I’d imagine a great deal of it is agricultural. This sounds like someone stating a perfectly normal fact in an alarmist way to gin up panic and conspiracy theories.

9. Every landowner is subject to the same rules and tax regulations as any other. There’s no reason to think foreign property holders are different *except* that assets of foreign entities held in the US can be seized through all the traditional means like civil forefeiture, eminent domain, civil judgements, plus they can be taken by the government in response to sanctions that would not typically touch US citizens. We can take their property from them more easily. With the laws being passed in places like TX, AK, FL – it’s getting even easier.

   Individuals like Ted Turner and Bill Gates own more than China. Countries we “like” like Germany or UK own 6x more than China. Netherlands owns more than 10x, and Canada more than 30x. Why would we think China would do anything more harmful than any/all of these others?

   The Chinese government doesn’t directly own the US farmland. The land is held by companies including State-owned or subsidiaries of State-owned companies like Fufeng US or Syngenta Group.

   Laws in states like Florida and Arkansas target “enemies” of the US or at least specific countries they don’t like. Chinese-based China-Chem bought Syngenta, formerly based in Sweden back in 2017. If a transaction like that suddenly makes ownership illegal, that destroys local jobs and takes away local tax revenue.

   With all the property the US owns or leases in other countries – whether in military bases, corporate property, or vacation/retirement/recreation venues, I think we should probably set the example and at least offer some level of reciprocation.

10. Principle aside, which is worth discussing, of course, if it’s true that the Chinese government owns ALMOST 400,000 acres, I’m not particularly worried at this point. That’s 0.045% of the 880 million acres of farmland in the US.

    Numbers and scale matter.

11. It’s not really risky. Thing is they don’t have control over it in a pure power sense. If anything major happens we can just confiscate it like we did German assets in WWI. They are free to try to land soldiers in Nebraska to assert control.

12. their money is as good as the Koch Brothers

13. > Why are foreign governments allowed to buy farmland in America?

    Because farm land in the US is private property, and private people are allowed to buy or sell land according to the law. 

14. No individual can purchase any land in China. Not even the Chinese.

    But foreign investors investing in the USA mean our dollars come back to us. These foreign investors are buying property in the USA because they have more faith in the USA than thier own countries

    It means they are betting on our success.

    That’s a good thing.

15. Everyone is American they just don’t accept it yet.

16. The farm would still be owned by a US entity, operated by US based individuals and subject to US laws.

    What’s the risk?

17. Georgia actually just passed a law prohibiting this

18. I don’t want anything chinese in America

19. It’s because the rich owners like the high price they’re getting

20. I absolutely don’t think they should be allowed to. Farmland is a vital resource.

21. Capitalism I guess? And no I do not think they should be able to buy land

22. That’s a good fucking question

23. As long as that land is being used to grow crops it doesn’t matter who owns it, we still end up with the food, because it wouldn’t be cost effective to ship it back.

    At the end of the day money isn’t worth as much as stability and security. It’s exactly why we have farm subsidies.

24. One of the only good things DeSantis has done is stop this (in Florida at least)

25. This isn’t really high on my list of things to worry about. It’s not like the US govt couldn’t seize the land if they had to, and 400,000 acres is basically nothing.

    Anyway, the answer to your question of why the US can’t buy farmland in China but China can buy farmland in the US, is that the US is a free country and China isn’t. Private individuals can’t truly own land in China, and they can in the US. As a result, in the US you have more freedom in who you can sell your land to.

26. There are 878.6 million acres of arable farmland in the United Stats, 400,000 acres is statistically insignificant.

27. Why does it matter? The land is not going anywhere and someone else will own it in the future.

28. Scary stuff, man. Next thing you know, they’ll be smuggling land out of the country.

29. What is the risk?

30. Stupidity knows no bounds.

31. This was one of DJT’s talking points in 2016. He never did anything about it after election.

32. From a quick Google search. ~400K out of 2.4 billion total acres in the US is not even a rounding error.

    China owns farmland in the United States, but the amount is relatively small. As of 2021, China owned 383,934 acres of land in the U.S., which is less than 1% of all foreign-held land in the country. This is also a small fraction of the total land owned by foreign entities, which is just over 3% of all privately held agricultural land in the U.S.

33. It’s all fun and games until they up and take that land back with them to China!

34. Because if they fuck around too hard then we end up with both the money and the land. Foreign ownership have significantly less rights and protections than citizens do, same as with everywhere else on Earth.

    And unlike when someone tries to nationalize the US’ stuff, China wouldn’t actually be able to kick in the door and demand the deal be honored.

35. It’s not like they can take the farmland back to their home country.

36. I don’t know but I don’t like it. China owns most of our pork too.

37. Our government is for sale. Isn’t that common knowledge?

38. They shouldn’t be, it’s hypocrisy.