Pork protectionism: US lawmakers have become wary of Chinese investment in US farmland and food companies, such as Smithfield, the world’s largest pork producer acquired for $6.95bn in 2013 by China-based WH Group Ltd. Image via Bloomberg Mercury
A flurry of proposals banning Chinese ownership of domestic farmland is being discussed in the US, at both the national and state level, as lawmakers have grown fearful of adverse foreign powers potentially posing a threat to national food security.
“We must act to mitigate this threat now, before it becomes too late to act,” contends Republican congressman Dan Newhouse.
Mr Newhouse introduced the Prohibition of Agricultural Land for the People’s Republic of China Act on February 2. Just a few days earlier, on January 25, another bill — the bipartisan Foreign Adversary Risk Management Act — was proposed to increase the powers of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US to scrutinise foreign investment deals through the lens of food security.
“This drastic increase in investment by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in foreign agriculture in [regions] like Africa and South America has prompted its own response from US lawmakers like myself,” argues Republican congressman Dusty Johnson, who cosponsored both pieces of legislation.
Chinese foreign investment into US farmland has increased tenfold in the past decade, according to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). Chinese entities owned more than 380,000 acres of farmland in the US worth around $2bn as of end of 2021. The USDA reports that foreign land holdings have increased by an average of 2.2 million acres per year since 2015.https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/13126486/embed
Overall, Chinese companies own less than 1% of the total private American agriculture land, with the majority of foreign holders being close US allies. Data from the USDA show that the top foreign holders of US agriculture land at the end of 2021 include Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and the UK. Those five countries hold roughly 62% of all foreign-owned US agricultural lands.