Ricketts, Fetterman team up for crackdown on China’s attempts to purchase US farmland

FIRST ON FOX: Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts, Democrat Sen. John Fetterman and others are teaming up on legislation to codify oversight on foreign countries buying American farmland.

The bipartisan Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure (AFIDA) Improvements Act seeks to implement recommendations published by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in January 2024, which found the AFIDA was ill-equipped to combat foreign ownership of American agricultural land. 

“American farmland should remain in the hands of American farmers and ranchers, not foreign adversaries,” Ricketts of Nebraska shared first with Fox News Digital. “The neighbors who feed us should benefit from land ownership, not Communist China. Food security is national security.”

The bill, also co-sponsored by Sens. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, John Cornyn of Texas, Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska introduced legislation, requires AFIDA reporting for foreign persons holding more than one percent interest in American agricultural land.

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Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., proposed bipartisan legislation on Thursday to increase oversight on foreign countries buying American farmland.  (Getty Images)

“Over the past several decades, China has been buying up American farmland in an attempt to infiltrate our agriculture supply chains. Food security is national security, and we cannot give the CCP a foothold,” Tuberville said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

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The AFIDA Improvements Act aims to increase information-sharing between the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). It also requires updates to the AFIDA’s handbook and establishes a deadline for USDA to set up an online AFIDA system. 

The bill’s House sponsor, Bacon, told Fox News Digital that “having actual processes in place will strengthen the security of our nation in the event nefarious foreign agents, such as the CCP, try to purchase agricultural lands within our nation.” 

A tractor collects bales of hay during a heatwave outside Elgin, Texas, on Wednesday, July 20, 2022. 

Based on the GAO’s recommendations, the bill seeks to update the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978 to better equip the USDA to combat foreign adversaries’ ownership of American agricultural land.

Under AFIDA, foreign entities must disclose to the USDA transactions of American agricultural land. 

Foreign investors own over 40 million acres of agricultural land in the United States, and between 2010 and 2021, Chinese ownership of American agricultural land increased from 13,720 acres to 383,935 acres, according to the USDA. 

The AFIDA Improvements Act is the latest attempt by Congressional Republicans to track foreign ownership of American farmland and strengthen national security. It was first introduced by Bacon and Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc., in 2024. 

China owned around 350,000 acres of farmland across 27 states as of last year, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture

China’s national flag flutters on Pingtan island, the closest point in China to Taiwan’s main island, in southeast China’s Fujian province on December 11, 2024.  (Adek Berry)

The movement to ban China from buying U.S. farmland located near military bases has been gaining steam in the Senate this year. The PASS Act, led by Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., has the backing of Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and would prevent any entity from a “covered country,” which includes China, North Korea, Russia and Iran, from purchasing agricultural land near military bases or sensitive sites. 

Republican Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Kevin Cramer of North Dakota and Katie Britt of Alabama, proposed The Not One More Inch or Acre Act, earlier this year to ban China from buying U.S. land entirely. 

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On the presidential campaign trail in 2024, President Donald Trump indicated he would ban China from buying American farmland. 

The Senate passed an amendment with bipartisan support in 2023 that would ban China, Russia, North Korea and Iran from buying American farmland and agricultural businesses, but it did not become law. 

Fox News Digital’s Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.