US Farmland Increasingly Controlled by Foreign Investment (2024)

FAQs

How much US farmland is owned by foreign investors? ›

Of the 1.3 billion acres of private agricultural land in the United States, foreign entities fully or partially owned roughly 40 million acres valued at $74 billion in 2021.

Vilsack said in a Thursday Senate hearing that Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea together own under 400,000 acres of agricultural land as of 2021. He added that the nation's largest foreign landholders include Canada, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.

As of year-end 2021, according to USDA, the states with the most foreign-owned agricultural acreage were Texas (5.3 million acres), Maine (3.6 million acres), Colorado (1.9 million acres), Alabama (1.8 million acres), and Oklahoma (1.7 million acres).

One of the main reasons behind this trend is urbanization. Cities and towns are expanding into previously rural areas. And that often involves the conversion of farmland into residential, commercial or industrial land uses.

People own most farmland. Some 2.6 million owners are individuals or families, and they own more than two thirds of all farm acreage. Fewer than 32,500 non family held corpor ations own farmland, and they own less than 5 percent of all U.S. farmland. Farmland owners hold an aver age of about 280 acres each.

In the United States, 97 percent of all farms and ranches are family owned. Those farms and ranches are owned by individuals, family partnerships or family corporations. Just 3 percent are non-family owned corporations.

Six states – including Hawaii, Iowa, Minnesota, Mississippi, North Dakota, and Oklahoma – have laws banning foreign ownership of farmland.

Many countries are realizing that they should grow more food, but they've sold much of their best land to China, which uses it to feed its own population. A few years ago, China bought nearly one-tenth of Ukraine's arable farmland.

On March 30, 1867, the United States reached an agreement to purchase Alaska from Russia for a price of $7.2 million. The Treaty with Russia was negotiated and signed by Secretary of State William Seward and Russian Minister to the United States Edouard de Stoeckl.

The wealthiest farmer in the United States lives and farms in California.

Can China buy land in the US? ›

“The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has no business purchasing land near military bases or for agricultural purposes – or for any other reason,” said Rep. Bill Johnson. “It is a critical matter of national security that we prevent the CCP from buying large swaths of American land.

The world has 15.749 million km(2) of arable land. (Arable land is land ploughed or tilled regularly, generally under a system of crop rotation). India has the most arable land in the world followed by the United States, Russia, China and Brazil.

The U.S. farm program pays subsidies to farmers not to grow crops in environmentally sensitive areas and makes payments to farmers based on what they have grown historically, even though they may no longer grow that crop.

We don't have nearly as much farmland as we did in 1900 because as food production increases, its marginal value decreases relative to that of houses, shopping centers, golf courses, and more.

Question: Why does the government pay farmers not to grow crops? Robert Frank: Paying farmers not to grow crops was a substitute for agricultural price support programs designed to ensure that farmers could always sell their crops for enough to support themselves.

Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is not only one of the richest men in the world, with a net worth of $190 billion at the time of this writing, but also he is one of the biggest private landowners in the United States. Bezos owns 420,000 acres. Much of his land is in West Texas.

After gaining permission from the Vatican, Burhans underwent a comprehensive of bringing the Church into the 21st century. A live database provides a visual of all its land holdings. Conclusion: The Catholic Church owns the most land, far more than McDonald's and billionaire Bill Gates.

Chinese entities owned 42,596 acres of Missouri agricultural land as of 2021 — just a little under half of the roughly 100,000 agricultural acres owned by all foreign entities, according to the Missouri Department of Agriculture.

Corporations with more than 10 shareholders operated a few hundred large U.S. farms, or about 0.5 percent of all large U.S. farms. Large corporations play an important role in setting procurement standards and organizing supply chains for farm products, but they directly operate very few U.S. farms.

Are corporate farms a danger to American Agriculture? ›

Supported by technological advances and government subsidies, the corporate farming sector causes widespread damage to the environment, perpetuates animal abuse, and harms both farmers and consumers.

119 FL, is a law by Russian President Vladimir Putin to give 1 hectare (2.5 acres) of free land in the Russian Far East to Russian citizens and foreign nationals as long as they live there for five years. The plan allows only Russian citizens to own the land.

In the European part of Russia, the most productive land is in the Central Chernozem Economic Region and the Volga Economic Region, which occupy the grasslands between Ukraine and Kazakstan. More than 65 percent of the land in those regions is devoted to agriculture.

Although China's agricultural output is the largest in the world, only 10% of its total land area can be cultivated. China's arable land, which represents 10% of the total arable land in the world, supports over 20% of the world's population.

Defeat in the Crimean War further reduced Russian interest in this region. Russia offered to sell Alaska to the United States in 1859, believing the United States would off-set the designs of Russia's greatest rival in the Pacific, Great Britain.

Pindos. Russian-speakers may use the term "Pindos" or "Pendos" (rus: Пиндос) as a derogatory ethnic slur for Americans.

The Russians established an outpost called Fortress Ross (Russian: Крѣпость Россъ, or Krepostʹ Ross) in 1812 near Bodega Bay in Northern California, north of San Francisco Bay. The Fort Ross colony included a sealing station on the Farallon Islands off San Francisco.

The best states for farmland in the US include Montana, Kansas, Oklahoma, South Dakota, North Dakota, Texas, Iowa, Kentucky, Wyoming, and California. Consider factors like profitability, cost of operation, infrastructure, and availability when selecting a location.

Oklahoma. Oklahoma currently sits at the lowest cost per acre among the best states for farmland in the US, so this is another state to consider when looking to buy land for agricultural purposes.

Mollisols are the best soils for farming because they contain large quantities of organic matter. Mollisols found in the Midwestern U.S. are the best for agriculture due to the grasslands that were present thousands of years ago.

How much money does the US owe China? ›

However, this has declined over time, and as of 2022 they controlled approximately 25% of foreign-owned debt. As of January 2023, the five countries owning the most US debt are Japan ($1.1 trillion), China ($859 billion), the United Kingdom ($668 billion), Belgium ($331 billion), and Luxembourg ($318 billion).

Recent reporting shows that a CCP-affiliated corporation purchased farmland in North Dakota that is just a stone's throw from high-capability military bases. The purchase raises the possibility that the Chinese government could use the farmland as a launching pad for espionage under the guise of operating a business.

The 2022 Land Report 100, compiled each year by The Land Report magazine, released its annual list of landowners who own the most acres in the United States. The nation's largest private landowners are the Emmerson family in California who own over 2.4 million acres.

Found in Ukraine, parts of Russia and the USA, mollisols are some of the world's most fertile soil. This type of soil includes black soils with high organic content.

The most fertile soils on Earth are the so-called black soils or chernozems. These are found in some areas in North America, Central Europe, Eastern Europe and Russia. It took several millennia and a specific climate and steppe vegetation for them to form.

Currently, investors are attracted to farmland due to its low correlation with the stock market's volatility. This makes it an exceptional tool for diversifying portfolios. Farmers have pricing power for their crops. Food is not a discretionary item on any budget.

The number of U.S. farms continues slow decline

Since 1982, the number of U.S. farms has continued to decline, but much more slowly. In the most recent survey, there were 2.00 million U.S. farms in 2022, down from 2.20 million in 2007.

Many families lost their farms. Agriculture now finds itself on the verge of crisis yet again, as farmers face growing inflation and even higher stakes. Those that produce much of the nation's corn and soy, as well as raise its livestock, are used to battling the weather.

In one year, from 2021 to 2022, USDA's ERS reported there were 9,350 fewer U.S. farm operations, with a total number for 2022 estimated at 2,002,700. Of those, 50.8% had less than $10,000 in sales for the year. Total acreage in farmland was estimated at 893,400,000 for 2022, a decrease in one year of 1.9 million acres.

Low-density residential (LDR) land use includes scattered subdivisions and large-lot housing, which fragments the agricultural land base and limits production. The Plains states are losing some of the most prime farmland in America, according to AFT. Kristopher Reynolds is the Midwest regional director with AFT.

Which state is 90% farmland? ›

The United States had 895.3 million acres of land in farms in 2021. Texas had the most land in farms in the United States in 2021 followed by Montana and Kansas.

The vast majority of Texas land — 83 percent — is part of a farm, ranch or forest. But Texas is losing such rural land more than any other state, in large part because of the exploding growth of metropolitan areas, according to newly released data.

Farmers, like other taxpayers, are subject to a variety of taxes at all levels of government. At the Federal level, these include income taxes, social security and self-employment taxes, and estate taxes. At the state and local level, the most significant taxes are on property and income.

Farmers are struggling to keep pace with inflation. Production costs for seed, fertilizer, equipment and other farming essentials are the highest we've seen in decades, subjecting farmers to higher cost of capital required to operate their business.

Land prices had fallen dramatically leading to record foreclosures. Farm debt for land and equipment purchases soared during the 1970s and early 1980s, doubling between 1978 and 1984. Other negative economic factors included high interest rates, high oil prices (inflation) and a strong dollar.

Highlights: Foreign Investment US Real Estate Statistics

From April 2020 to March 2021, investors from outside the United States bought 107,000 properties worth $54.4 billion in the United States. Foreign-born individuals make up 14.25 percent of the population in the country's 50 largest metros, on average.

A majority of U.S. land in farms is owner-operated—just over 60 percent, according to the 2017 Census of Agriculture.

In fact, 97 percent of all U.S. farms are family-owned." Food equals family – 97 percent of the 2.1 million farms in the United States are family-owned operations. Small business matters – 88 percent of all U.S. farms are small family farms.

Of this acreage, foreign investors held an interest in 1,136,206 acres. Foreign-held land in California represents 2.7 percent of the state's total privately held agricultural land. This is close to the national average of 2.9 percent.

The 2022 Land Report 100, compiled each year by The Land Report magazine, released its annual list of landowners who own the most acres in the United States. The nation's largest private landowners are the Emmerson family in California who own over 2.4 million acres.

Are the Chinese buying American homes? ›

Chinese investors are among the top foreign purchasers of residential real estate, along with Canadians, according to the National Association of Realtors. Other states have had concerns over foreign ownership of land and have made efforts to regulate it.

Chinese ownership of U.S. farmland jumped more than 20-fold in a decade from $81 million in 2010 to nearly $1.9 billion in 2021. Hu pointed out that the Fufeng Group, a China-based chemical manufacturing company, bought 300 acres of land for a corn mill in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Over the time period displayed, the total farmland area has decreased by almost 50 million acres, reaching a total of 893.4 million acres as of 2022.

Nearly 40 percent (353.8 million acres) of all U.S. farmland is rented or leased, and 80 percent of all rented farmland is owned by non-operator (non-farming) landlords.

Who Owns the Land? Of all private U.S. agricultural land, Whites account for 96 percent of the owners, 97 percent of the value, and 98 percent of the acres.

In a study of USDA reports, Pew found the foreign country that owns the most U.S. land is not China or Russia, but rather, our neighbors north: Canada. Investors from the Great White North, according to the USDA, own about 12.8 million acres of U.S. land, most of it forest land.

While foreign land ownership has been reported in all 50 states and Puerto Rico, the holdings are concentrated in particular states. The greatest share is in Texas, with over 4.4 million acres, followed by Maine (3.3 million acres) and Alabama (1.8 million acres).