BEIJING (dpa-AFX) - The Department of Agriculture has launched a National Farm Security Action Plan that envisages new law and executive action to ban the purchase of American farmland by Chinese nationals and other foreign adversaries.
Tuesday, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins explained aggressive actions across seven critical areas proposed in the action plan.
'The first of the seven is securing and protecting American farmland ownership, actively engaging at every level of government to take swift legislative and executive action to ban the purchase of American farmland by Chinese nationals and other foreign adversaries,' she said.
Part of that also involves using presidential authorities to reclaim farmland in the U.S. that is now owned by foreign adversaries.
While keeping farmland in the hands of American farmers rather than businesses affiliated with adversarial foreign governments secures the ability of the U.S. to always produce food to feed Americans, it serves a second purpose as well, she said.
In some cases, farmland purchased by investors associated with adversarial foreign governments is situated around U.S. military installations, which means foreign ownership of that land is both a threat to America's ability to ensure its own food supply and also a threat to broader American security because it puts those installations at risk.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that as part of the National Farm Security Action Plan, the USDA will work with state and congressional partners to take action to end direct or indirect purchase or control of American farmland by nationals from countries of concern - including China, Russia, Iran and North Korea.
Hegseth told Rollins that the USDA's National Farm Security Action Plan will help DOD get better security for U.S. bases.
Rollins cited recent events that expose strategic vulnerabilities in U.S. food and agriculture supply chain.
Last month, the U.S. Department of Justice charged foreign nationals, including a Chinese Communist Party member, with smuggling a noxious fungus into the United States - a potential agroterrorism weapon responsible for billions in global crop losses. 'The scheme involved a U.S. research lab and highlighted a disturbing trend: America's enemies are playing the long game-infiltrating our research, buying up our farmland, stealing our technology, and launching cyberattacks on our food systems,' Rollins said.
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