U.S. agriculture and military move to protect US farmland from purchases from foreign adversaries, including the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Brooke Rollins, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture on Wednesday highlights the alarming rate of agricultural land purchases by China that threatens U.S.national security.
“China alone owns 265,000 acres of American agricultural land. Back in 1983, it was only 2,000 acres,” Rollins said. “These actions expose strategic vulnerabilities in America’s food and agriculture supply chain.”
“Thankfully, President Trump, the first president to truly understand that protecting the homeland must begin with protecting our farmland,” she added.
U.S. War Secretary Pete Hegseth said U.S. agriculture has been a target for foreign adversaries.
“Something people may not know is that shortly after 9-11, U.S. forces in Afghanistan uncovered al-Qaeda training manuals that specifically targeted America’s agriculture for attack,” he said.
“Bottom line is we’re not dealing with hypotheticals here. The threat is real, it is asymmetric, and it must be neutralised,” Hegseth added.
Last year, the Department of Agriculture announced the National Farm Security Action Plan with the goal to elevate American farmland as a point of national security.
Since then, the Trump administration has worked with various states to end the purchase of American farmland by foreign adversaries, including China.
Over the years, Chinese companies have been purchasing land near military bases across the U.S.
Several examples include a Chinese food producer that purchased farmland near Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota.
A Chinese energy company who bought land near Laughlin Air Force Base in southern Texas,
Another case involved a Chinese-linked crypto firm that snapped up land near Francis E. Warren Air Base in Wyoming.
