July 8 (UPI) — The Trump administration has announced it will work to limit Chinese nationals and nationals from other so-called adversarial countries from purchasing U.S. farmland, saying their ownership of U.S. crops poses a national security risk.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture released a seven-point National Farm Security Action Plan on Tuesday aimed at protecting U.S. farmland and food from becoming owned by foreign governments and entities, specifically the People’s Republic of China.
During a press conference in Washington, D.C., with the Trump administration’s leading law enforcement and military officials, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins said U.S. farmland was under threat from “criminals,” “political adversaries” and “hostile regimes” seeking to use it as a weapon against the American people.
“American agriculture is not just about feeding our families but about protecting our nation and standing up to foreign adversaries who are buying our farmland, stealing our research and creating dangerous vulnerabilities in the very systems that sustain us,” she said.
According to the plan, the USDA will seek state and congressional lawmakers to pass legislation and the president to institute executive action to end the direct and indirect purchase or control of U.S. farmland by nationals from countries of concern or other foreign adversaries.
Rollins explained that they are also working to “claw back” land already purchased by Chinese nationals and nationals from other foreign adversarial countries.
She said they have already canceled seven active agreements with entities in foreign countries of concern and that she signed a memo Tuesday to immediately remove 70 citizens from those countries who have contracts or research arrangements with the USDA. She added that another 550 entities were in the process of being removed.
The announcement comes amid deepening competition between the United States and China and concern over Chinese nationals potentially working in the United States to further the objectives of Beijing, whether that be through stealing technology or recruiting potential assets.
According to a USDA Farm Service Agency report for 2023, Chinese, Iranian, North Korean and Russian investment in U.S. agricultural land accounts for less than 1% of foreign-held agricultural property across the country, with Chinese investors owning 277,336 acres as of the end of that year.
Also participating in the press conference were Attorney General Pam Bondi and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, emphasizing the national security attention the Trump administration intends to place on U.S. ownership of U.S. cropland.
Hegseth, as the head of the Pentagon, said he wants to know who is buying farmland in the United States near his bases, calling that “common sense.”
“We would be asleep at the wheel if we were not fully a party to an effort like this, to ensure that our nation had the food supply it needs,” he said.