This piece was originally published in The Hill.
Last week, Sens. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.) introduced the Protecting America’s Agricultural Land from Foreign Harm Act of 2023, marking an important step in keeping U.S. farmland safe from malign foreign influence by reforming how the United states tracks foreign investment in agriculture.
The law would reform the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (AFIDA), which requires the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to collect data on foreign ownership of agricultural land in the U.S. The law was passed in 1978, but for decades, USDA has been lax in enforcing the law and properly tracking foreign ownership of U.S. agricultural land. This laxity has resulted in dangerous Chinese purchases.
The calls to reform AFIDA come amid mounting concern about foreign investment in American agriculture, due to cases of Chinese Communist Party-connected entities buying property next to American military bases. For example, Fufeng Group, a Chinese agriculture company attempted to buy property in Grand Forks, North Dakota, next to Grand Forks Air force Base in 2021. In another case, a CCP-connected billionaire bought hundreds of thousands of acres on the Texan-Mexican border near Val Verde Air Force base in Texas in 2016 and 2017.