by George Jared (gjared@talkbusiness.net)
Foreigners and foreign-based companies have owned agriculture and forestry land in the U.S. since before it was founded as a country, and in recent years that trend has been on the rise. As foreign ownership of U.S. farmlands increases, will more states consider restrictions on these land buys?
According to a 2020 USDA report, foreign persons hold an interest in nearly 37.6 million acres of private U.S. agricultural land, an increase of 2.4 million acres from 2019. Since 2015, foreign investments have increased an average of 2.2 million acres per year. Foreign investors from Canada, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom represent 63% of all foreign agricultural landholdings in the U.S.
The foreign investments have raised concerns. Over the past year, Missouri, Indiana, Texas, and Alabama have considered legislation that would restrict foreign investments and ownership of agricultural land within the boundaries of their states.
