A coalition of senators from both sides of the aisle is sounding the alarm about what they see as a quiet but dangerous trend across America’s heartland: Acres of farmland falling into foreign hands, with China leading the seizures.
The urgency behind their concern is driven by a stark trendline: Chinese agricultural investments in the U.S. have skyrocketed tenfold over the past decade, according to Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, who has sponsored the ‘Farmland Act.’
The legislation is designed to stymie Chinese influence over U.S. land by giving the federal government more oversight of agricultural property owned by foreign countries.
It’s an effort with one overarching goal in mind: Curtail the creeping ambitions of one of our top adversaries.
Ernst explicitly calls out China, which ‘in particular has increased agricultural investments tenfold over the past decade.’
Ernst told the Daily Mail that ‘limiting the opportunities for foreign entities, especially adversaries like China’ to purchase farmland is critically important.
China ‘will come in and purchase that land, so that we’re not able to put it into production, and in turn they are,’ Ernst noted.
There is bipartisan consensus that China is a threat to the United States in areas such as intellectual property and global competitiveness, but Democrats and Republicans typically disagree on the best ways to deal with the adversarial nation.
U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) speaks during a hearing on Capitol Hill
Republicans are raising concerns about insufficient oversight in government programs that fund research and technological innovation, particularly when foreign nationals are leading projects financed by U.S. taxpayers.
Democrats, on the other hand, are blaming the Trump administration for cutting funding to research initiatives they say are critical to maintaining America’s competitiveness in emerging technologies.
Despite the disagreements, Ernst has been able to draft two Democrats to support the bill: Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and John Fetterman of Pennsylvania. Republicans Rick Scott of Florida and Ted Budd of North Carolina have also signed on, giving it wide geographical support.
Opposition to the Farmland Act centers on concerns about expanded federal oversight and regulatory burdens for foreign investors in acquiring U.S. agricultural property. Legitimate investments could see their transactions disrupted or delayed, these critics argue.
Still, many states have already taken steps to limit foreign purchases of their land, including Ernst’s Iowa.
‘But, if you go back and look across the United States at what we already have sold to foreign entities, if you put all those acres together, its going to be larger than the state of Tennessee,’ Ernst told the Daily Mail.
In Budd’s state of North Carolina, China owns nearly 50,000 acres of farmland, some of it near critical sites such as us military bases.
Scott’s home state of Florida is home to nearly 13,000 acres of farmland owned by China.
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins speaks during a press conference on the steps of the United States Department of Agriculture on July 14, 2025 in Washington, DC
People review a map in front of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) building before the start of U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins’ press conference to discuss the USDA’s “National Farm Security Action Plan,” in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 8, 2025
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, right, with, fourth from left to right, White House trade counselor Peter Navarro, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen and Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, speaks during a news conference at the Department of Agriculture to rollout the USDA’S National Farm Security Action Plan and discuss actions being taken to protect American agriculture from foreign threats in Washington, Tuesday, July 8, 2025
Ernst’s bill isn’t the only one in the works that aims to stop China’s efforts to buy up American agricultural land. Missouri Senator Josh Hawley has introduced the Protecting Our Farms and Homes from China Act, and Representative Mary Miller introduced a House compliment to his bill this week. Twelve Republican members have co-sponsored Miller’s bill in the House.
The Trump administration claimed back in February that overall, China owns over 350,000 acres in 27 states. Foreign entities and individuals own roughly 43 million acres of U.S. agricultural land, nearly 2 percent of all U.S. land, according to government data.
A Government Accountability Office report from 2024 determined that foreign acquisitions of U.S. land are difficult to identify. It also determined that a prior report from 2021 – claiming that foreign entities owned 40 million acres – was inaccurate.
Trump’s Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced recently that the Department of Agriculture (USDA) would not allow ‘Chinese nationals’ or other foreign adversaries to purchase farmland in the United States.
‘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,’ Rollins said.