A Washington congressman's amendment to a U.S. Department of Agriculture appropriations bill marks the second time the House has tried to ban adversarial regimes from owning U.S. farmland.
U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA) said in a tweet on June 28 that he introduced the amendment to protect U.S. national security "by ensuring that adversaries like China, like Russia, like North Korea or Iran do not gain a foothold on American soil." According to his website, Newhouse said it's a fight he will not give up.
"China, Russia, Iran and North Korea are not our allies, and it is imperative that we do not allow these adversaries to gain a foothold on American soil, especially with our food supply already weakened by poor policy decisions from this administration," Newhouse said on his website. "Ensuring our adversaries cannot control our domestic agriculture and food supply is a matter of national security, and I will not back down in this fight."
Newhouse's statement came shortly after he spoke before the House Appropriations Committee's meeting the same day, when he introduced an amendment to the "Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies" appropriations bill for fiscal year 2023. The amendment to the appropriations bill would prohibit agricultural land purchases in the U.S. by companies owned, in full or in part, by China, Russia, North Korea or Iran.
Newhouse's amendment was unanimously adopted by voice vote. A similar amendment that Newhouse supported last year was struck down by the U.S. Senate, which would not agree to the ban.
Russia was added to this year's amendment based on "the horrific events in Ukraine" perpetrated by the regime of President Vladimir Putin, Newhouse told members of the committee.
"As many members of this committee know, China, Russia, Iran and North Korea are not our allies," Newhouse said. "These authoritative regimes continue provoking nations worldwide, including including Russia in the Ukraine, China and North Korea in the Asian Pacific and globally, and Iran in the Middle East."
Newhouse also referred to China's more than decade-long effort to "expand its global reach" though its Belt and Road Initiative, which includes energy and infrastructure acquisition in the Americas. Newhouse warned committee members that food production is next on China's agenda.
"I want to be very clear about this," Newhouse said. "This is about our country's national security and ensuring that adversaries like China, like Russia, like North Korea or Iran, do not gain a foothold on American soil."
Newhouse's amendment stems from a 2018 USDA Economic Research Service report that found Chinese investment in the nation's agricultural sector had grown tenfold in the previous decade. Part of that investment was China's WH Group Ltd.'s $4.7 billion purchase of Smithfield Foods in 2013, according to Reuters.
That purchase eventually lead to settlement of multiple lawsuits in 2020 against Smithfield by more than 500 North Carolina residents over the Chinese company's practice of storing hog feces in open pits, Agriculture.com reported. People living on neighboring farms complained that the resulting stench kept them inside their homes and the judge in the case noted that Smithfield "persisted in its chosen farming practices, despite its knowledge of the harms to its neighbors, exhibiting wanton or willful disregard of the neighbors' rights to enjoyment of their property."
Earlier that year, Politico reported that a little less than 200,000 acres of U.S. farmland, worth about $1.9 billion, was owned by Chinese investors and Chinese-owned companies and that the Chinese Communist Party's goal is to control its food supply chain through Smithfield-type purchases.
Currently, only Hawaii, Iowa, Minnesota, Mississippi, North Dakota and Oklahoma have banned foreign ownership of agricultural land, but even in those states, Chinese investors can get around those laws by purchasing U.S. corporations that own farmland.
In Texas last year, Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) signed the Lone Star Infrastructure Protection Act to bar companies owned by hostile nations from getting their hands on Texas infrastructure, according to Forbes. Abbott signed the act after Chinese billionaire Sun Guangxin, who has ties to the Chinese Communist Party, spent about $110 million on a 140,000-acre land purchase in south Texas, near Laughlin Air Force Base in Val Verde County.
"The People's Republic of China is only interested in reaping every possible benefit from U.S. land without giving back or considering our future to sustain an independent energy and food production," Newhouse said in his concluding remarks before the House Appropriations Committee. "More needs to be done to ensure the U.S. food supply chain is secure and independent. The U.S. cannot become dependent on our adversaries for our domestic food supply."
