Are Iowans Concerned About The Right Country’s Land Ownership?

When it comes to foreign land ownership, Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley has been vocal about his concerns.

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In 2022, Senator Grassley and Tammy Baldwin introduced the Farmland Security Act which would amend the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (AFIDA) of 1978. The Farmland Security Act was signed into law as part of the Omnibus Spending Bill back in December.

The Farmland Security Act requires that the USDA publish all the publish foreign land investments for the prior year on a public database.

Concerns Around Foreign Investment

When it comes to foreign investment, there is a lot of concern about Chinese purchases. These concerns only heightened in late January when the China-based Fufeng Group Ltd. Was prevented from building a corn mill close to a North Dakota Air Force base.

Then with the spy balloon sightings, these concerns only increased more as worries arose that foreign governments would use US land for espionage efforts.

While there is a lot of concern about the amount of land China owns in the US, it ranks 18 in foreign agricultural land ownership. Overall, there are 109 countries that own U.S. farmland.

According to a Forbes article; these countries own the most U.S. agricultural acres.

1. Canada (12,845,000 acres)
2. Netherlands (4,875,000)
3. Italy (2,703,000)
4. United Kingdom (2,538,000)
5. Germany (2,269,000)
6. Portugal (1,483,000)
7. France (1,316,000)
8. Denmark (856,000)
9. Luxembourg (802,000)
10. Ireland (760,000)

China, ranked 18, owns roughly 384,000 acres.

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