Agriculture Secretary Brook Rollins warned on Fox News Tuesday that foreign ownership of US farmland poses a national security threat that could cause a “massive decline of civilization.”
American Farm Bureau Federation It has been reported In January, foreign investors held 45.85 million acres (3.61%) of US farmland in 2023, showing a 12.2% increase since 2021. When featured in “Special Report with Brett Bayer,” Byer increased foreign ownership of American assets by 85% over the 13 years leading up to 2023, encouraging citizens and national care. Baier asked Rollins if this would cause problems for Americans.
“This is a huge challenge for our country, and it’s not just a challenge for farmers and farmland. It’s a national security issue. Food security is national security,” Rollins told Bayer.
Rollins portrays what she says as a historical precedent.
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“When we can’t feed our people, you can see the massive decline of other great civilizations in the world and in history. So I personally believe this is one of the most important challenges we face,” Rollins said. (Related: AG Secretary says Biden Admin has won a $49 billion trade deficit that caused a 30% surge in farm costs)
Rollins proposed a proactive approach to the issue of leveraging both state and federal resources.
“We’ve already begun to think about what the solution would look like. I’m a massive 10th Amendment advocate and a democratic lab. The state is already beginning to make a significant move on this exact issue. “But I think it’s just as much as we want to push things back into people, in the federal government, that’s something we really need to see. I’ve already started a conversation on the hill about it.”
Canadian investors lead in 33.5% of foreign-owned US farmland, followed by the Netherlands, Italy, the UK and Germany each own a substantial but small portion.
Texas holds the most foreign-owned farmland in the United States on 5.7 million acres, accounting for 3.6% of the total agricultural space of privately owned farms, while Maine has a proportional lead over 21% of farmland. Foreign ownership. In both states, this ownership is primarily due to forest products and timber companies, but in Hawaii, 17% of farmland is foreign owned, primarily through renewable energy investments.
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