US President Donald Trump’s administration is expanding scrutiny of Chinese and other foreign ownership of American farmland and starting to cancel agricultural contracts with entities from “countries of concern” amid apprehension over the national security risks of such foreign involvement.
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As part of a new seven-part National Farm Security Action Plan, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told reporters on Tuesday that “swift legislative and executive action” would be taken at “every level of government” to “ban the purchase of American farmland by Chinese nationals and other foreign adversaries”.
The Agriculture Department will also target research and innovation programmes with foreign countries “that do not have our best interests in mind”.
Rollins said that the department has already cancelled seven active agreements with entities from countries of concern – a designation that includes China, Iran, Russia, North Korea – and will continue to cancel them, along with removing foreign citizens from federal contracts.
“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,” Rollins said, citing China as a “hostile regime” that sees the American way of life as a “profound and existential threat”.
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The Agriculture Department, according to Rollins, is coordinating with the White House; the departments of Treasury, Defence, Homeland Security, and Justice; and state governors, agriculture commissioners, and local, tribal, and territorial governments to carry out the plan.