Posted on 05/27/2019 6:08:29 PM PDT by familyop
The number of acres of U.S. farmland held by foreign-owned investors has doubled in the past two decades, raising alarm bells in farming communities.
American soil.
Those are two words that are commonly used to stir up patriotic feelings. They are also words that can't be be taken for granted, because today nearly 30 million acres of U.S. farmland are held by foreign investors. That number has doubled in the past two decades, which is raising alarm bells in farming communities.
When the stock market tanked during the last recession, foreign investors began buying up big swaths of U.S. farmland. And because there are no federal restrictions on the amount of land that can be foreign-owned, it's been left up to individual states to decide on any limitations.
It's likely that even more American land will end up in foreign hands, especially in states with no restrictions on ownership. With the median age of U.S. farmers at 55, many face retirement with no prospect of family members willing to take over. The National Young Farmers Coalition anticipates that two-thirds of the nation's farmland will change hands in the next few decades.
"Texas is kind of a free-for-all, so they don't have a limit on how much land can be owned," say's Ohio Farm Bureau's Ty Higgins, "You look at Iowa and they restrict it — no land in Iowa is owned by a foreign entity."
Ohio, like Texas, also has no restrictions, and nearly half a million acres of prime farmland are held by foreign-owned entities. In the northwestern corner of the state, below Toledo, companies from the Netherlands alone have purchased 64,000 acres for wind farms.
There are two counties in this region with the highest concentration of foreign-owned farmland — more than 41,000 acres each. One of those is Paulding County, where three wind farms straddle the Ohio-Indiana line.
Higgins says that this kind of consumption of farmland by foreign entities is starting to cause concern. "One of the main reasons that we're watching this ... is because once a foreign entity buys up however many acres they want, Americans might never be able to secure that land again. So, once we lose it, we may lose it for good."
His other concern is that every acre of productive farmland that is converted over to something other than agriculture, is an acre of land that no longer produces food. That loss is felt from the state level all the way down to rural communities, where one in six Ohioans has ties to agriculture.
Angela Huffman is a 6th generation farmer in Wyandot County, which, along with Paulding County, has over 41,000 acres of foreign-owned farmland. Her modest, two-story white farmhouse has been in her family for almost 200 years. Her grandfather was the last person to actively farm the land here. When he got out of of farming due to declining markets, none of his five children wanted to take over, and the cropland is now leased.
But Huffman, a young millennial who lives here with her mother, wants to try and keep the farm going and revive her family heritage.
Walking out to the barn, a huge white Great Pyrenees dog watches over a small flock of sheep. Huffman says she's worried about the effects of foreign land ownership on her rural community — which she describes as similar to Walmart pushing local businesses out of the market.
"Right out my back door here, Chinese-owned Smithfield Foods, the largest pork producer in the world, has recently bought out a couple grain elevators," Angela says pointing across the field behind her house, "basically extracting the wealth out of the community."
To be fair, U.S. farmers and corporations also invest in overseas agriculture, owning billions of dollars of farmland from Australia to Brazil, but the Smithfield Food buyout has really raised concerns with American farmers. As part of that 2013 sale, a Chinese company now owns 146,000 acres of prime U.S. farmland.
Back in the Huffman farmhouse, Joe Maxwell is typing on a laptop at the kitchen table. Maxwell is a fourth generation farmer from Missouri. He and Huffman are part of the Organization for Competitive Markets, an advocacy group of farmers and ranchers across the nation.
Maxwell points to the Smithfield Foods elevators across the field: "The money that those elevators used to make stayed within the community. Today the money those elevators make, will go into the pocket of someone thousands of thousands of miles away. This is going on across America."
Maxwell is concerned that, as other states put restrictions on foreign purchases in place, Ohio in particular is being targeted. "So when they're looking for investments in the U.S. and agriculture," he says, "Ohio's a great ag state and you don't have any restrictions like other states."
Nationwide, Canadian investors own the most farmland. In Ohio, it's Germany, with 71,000 acres.
On the southern central part of the state, John Trimmer manages 30,000 acres of corn and soybeans for German investors. He's been working with German families that have wanted to get into U.S. agriculture since the 1980s. "They started to buy land in Iowa and Minnesota," Trimmer explains, "but right when they started then [Iowa and Minnesota] passed state laws which restricted foreign ownership."
'None of them have an interest in the farm'
Instead, the Germans turned to Ohio.
But, Trimmer says, there is a misconception about about foreign owners — that they aren't good neighbors or good stewards of the land. What he sees is a growing divide between older family members who still live on the farm, and their children who have no interest in the family business and want to cash out the land.
"The last two farms we bought here, through an owner, her and her brothers and sisters inherited it from their mother, and none of them wanted to farm. None of them have an interest in the farm." Trimmer explains that his German clients have established a reputation in the community for letting the tenants — often aging parents or grown children — continue to live in the houses on the farms they buy.
Sellers work directly with his German clients — instead of putting the property up on the market, the sale ensures that family members can live out their lives in the family homestead, while still getting cash value for the farmland.
We have lots and lots of it and they can’t take it with them.
And what does “increasingly” mean in the headline. Sensational BS.
Mehi Co. prohibits foreigners from owning land
I remember the hysterics back in the 80s when the Japanese were buying everything here.
And that turned out to be a flash in the pan.
Anyone who “owns” property in the US and failed to pay their property tax learned quickly enough who really “owns” the land here. If you have to pay money to someone or they can take it away and push you off “your” land, you are a renter not an owner.
These foreign “buyers” will learn too. Feed the beast or you’re out.
By allowing the hordes illegally entering the US through the Mexican border avoid recognizing and dealing with the 2nd class treatment that American citizens get while legally residing in Mexico which not just includes denial of voting privileges but employment, and land ownership in their name.
All of which when given to illegals and property ownership by them is used in territory of states which Mexico reclaims as theirs claims which we have been ignoring. Vut could be problematical should any reclaiming effort by regime changes in Mexico arise , Our border with Mexico has always been contentious. Those barriers are a must .
Americans legally in Mexico Besides being unable to vote one must also be a citizen to own land and Mexico is very restrictive about granting citizenship.
Because of that a US citizen besides not being able to vote,and cannot have title in their name to any land property in Mexico. And until that is changed the US and the affected state should consider making that reciprocal. Prohibit any illegal entrant employment, voting, and land ownership privileges fully enforced .In other words Sneak into this country before expulsion no job no voting no landowning ..
By allowing the hordes illegally entering the US through the Mexican border avoid recognizing and dealing with the 2nd class treatment that American citizens get while legally residing in Mexico which not just includes denial of voting privileges but employment, and land ownership in their name.
All of which when given to illegals and property ownership by them is used in territory of states which Mexico reclaims as theirs claims which we have been ignoring. Vut could be problematical should any reclaiming effort by regime changes in Mexico arise , Our border with Mexico has always been contentious. Those barriers are a must .
Americans legally in Mexico Besides being unable to vote one must also be a citizen to own land and Mexico is very restrictive about granting citizenship.
Because of that a US citizen besides not being able to vote,and cannot have title in their name to any land property in Mexico. And until that is changed the US and the affected state should consider making that reciprocal. Prohibit any illegal entrant employment, voting, and land ownership privileges fully enforced .In other words Sneak into this country before expulsion no job no voting no landowning ..
...and the Japanese investors went bankrupt and the Americans bought back their properties.
This is not a good thing long term.
ping
because once a foreign entity buys up however many acres they want, Americans might never be able to secure that land again. So, once we lose it, we may lose it for good.”
Future scenario:
Large foreign landowners insist US law enforcement protect their rights to take all produce from the farms they own, and ship it directly to their home country, even when they refuse to sell food to US citizens, and leave millions starving.
Look at what Russia did with the Ukraine.
Or large foreign landowners bring in millions of illegals, settle them on the foreign owned land, and declare these area to be no longer under US laws.
Look at the areas in Europe that no law enforcement officer dares enter (mostly Muslim enclaves).
O M G !! Doubled!!
According to my Google search, there are 915 million acres of farmland in the US. So that foreign share has grown to 3.2%.
ML/NJ
Maybe once the whole country is foreign-owned, we can finally get our military deployed to protect it.
Possession is 9/10 of the law and everyone knows that. in the end, if its inside the USA borders then it belongs to the USA. Sweet dreams.
Tempest in a tea-pot, molehill trying to spin into a mountain. What do the farming communities “alarmed” by foreign land purchases think will happen? They’ll either build a factory, a housing project, or run a farm on the land. Any one of those prospects would accrue to the benefit of Americans. A tidal wave of illegal invaders permeating the border, that’s ok. If you have a problem with that, you’re a racist. But buying land? Sound the alarm! Where’s my shotgun, maw? Ain’t gonna ‘low no durn furners to come in and take over.
He who owns the land will have say in government. Our children increasingly cannot afford to own a house. They rent from increasingly foreign owned and managed companies. This is what not owning the land of USA looks like:
“If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them (around the banks), will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”
—Thomas Jefferson
Exactly. Thanks for the reply. Good point.
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