Trump administration moves to ban foreign farmland ownership

The Trump administration is moving to protect America’s farmlands and ban the sale of land to Chinese nationals and other foreign adversaries through a multi-agency effort.

The National Farm Security Action Plan was announced Tuesday by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins while surrounded by several other Cabinet members and Republican governors.

“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,” Ms. Rollins said at a press conference at the Agriculture Department headquarters Tuesday.

She said “swift legislative and executive action” will be taken to ban the purchase of farmland by Chinese nationals.

Seven active agreements with foreign countries of concern have been canceled and 70 people affiliated with those countries have been removed. Another 550 entities are in the process of being removed for similar reasons.

Ms. Rollins said other countries of concern include North Korea, Iran and Russia.

The plan aims to “claw back” the farmland that has already been purchased and move forward with a “much more intentional look” at what foreigners are buying the land.

There are seven areas that the plan will target: addressing the foreign ownership of American farmland; refocusing domestic investment into specific manufacturing sectors and working with non-adversarial partners; protecting U.S. nutrition from fraud and foreign exploitation; ending sweetheart deals or secret pacts to defend America’s agricultural research and innovation; promoting an America First agenda in USDA programs; cracking down on bio-threats on plants and animals; and protecting supply chains.

Chinese nationals currently own roughly 265,000 acres of U.S. land, according to the USDA.

“For them, agricultural lands and our farms, because they are a previous inheritance, are weapons to be turned against us,” Ms. Rollins said.

Also at Tuesday’s announcement were Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Pam Bondi, trade adviser Peter Navarro, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and Republican Govs. Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas, Jim Pillen of Nebraska and Bill Lee of Tennessee.

“No longer can foreign adversaries assume we’re not watching,” Mr. Hegseth said.

This move comes months after Mrs. Sanders introduced her own legislative package to restrict Chinese nationals from buying land, particularly near military bases or critical infrastructure.