During a Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs hearing, U.S. Sen. Katie Britt expressed her concerns about the Chinese Communist Party’s growing influence and alleged aggression around the world. “I believe that one acre of American farmland owned by the Chinese Communist Party is one acre too many.”
Senator Britt directed her line of questioning to Clay Lowery, the former Assistant Secretary for International Affairs at the U.S. Department of the Treasury and former Director of International Finance at the National Security Council. Lowery also previously chaired the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). CFIUS is the government committee that reviews international mergers and acquisitions that may affect national security interests.
“Before we start talking about sanctions, I wanted to take a moment to talk about the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS),” Sen. Britt said. “In 2021, the U.S. Department of Agriculture noted that foreign investors held 40 million acres of our farmland. This has occurred, since 2015, at a tune of about 2.2 million acres a year. I have heard from Alabamians as I travel across our state, and this is a concern for them – specifically, the Chinese Communist Party and their willingness and their efforts and their deliberate and intentional attempts to buy up fertile U.S. farmland. I believe food security is national security. Food security is economic security. I believe that one acre of American farmland owned by the Chinese Communist Party is one acre too many. Additionally, I think there is another layer of national security concern that we’re allowing China to buy up farmland near our military installations. It is completely and totally unacceptable.”
“So, my question, Mr. Lowery, for you as a former chairman of CFIUS, when it comes to ensuring we have a strong agriculture voice at the table when these decisions are being made, do you agree that it’s reasonable the Secretary of Agriculture should be involved as a member of CFIUS?” Britt said.
Lowery responded, “I think it is totally reasonable.” Lowery affirmed that the Secretary of Agriculture should likely be involved in CFIUS in “a systematic way.”
Britt is a cosponsor of the Foreign Adversary Risk Management (FARM) Act, which Senator Tommy Tuberville introduced.
“Over the past few years, we’ve seen an alarming increase in foreign purchases of farmland and food companies, particularly by China,” said Sen. Tuberville. “These foreign investments are now reaching every piece of the very large puzzle that makes up our agriculture industry, from farming and processing, to packaging and shipping. That’s why America’s agriculture community needs to have a permanent seat at the table when our government vets foreign investment in our country. Adding all parts of the agricultural supply chain to the list of transactions reviewed by CFIUS is the first step toward ensuring America’s agricultural suppliers can keep food on tables across the country.”
This bill would crack down on the CCP’s growing ownership of U.S. farmland and agricultural companies by placing the Secretary of Agriculture on CFIUS; requiring the committee to review any investment that could result in foreign control of any U.S. agricultural business; including farming systems and supply chains in the definitions of critical infrastructure and critical technologies to review such investments; and mandating that the Department of Agriculture and the Government Accountability Office must each analyze and report on foreign influence in the U.S. agricultural industry.
“The spy balloon was only the latest, most visible instance in an ongoing trend of aggressive behavior by the Chinese Communist Party,” Britt stated last week. “There is no doubt that the CCP is our greatest geopolitical and national security threat, and everything they do is as our adversary. The FBI has said that they open a new counterintelligence case against China about twice per day. From stealing our intellectual property and spying on our children through TikTok to buying up American farmland and engaging in unfair trade practices that undercut Alabama steelmakers and shrimpers, we must hold the CCP accountable. We accomplish this through strength, not continued weakness, which is why I’m committed to modernizing our defense and intelligence capabilities. I’ll continue to fight to put hardworking Alabamians first while protecting our homeland.”
It is estimated that Chinese investors own 192,000 acres of American farmland worth about $1.9 billion. It is not just an American phenomenon, as Chinese investors have been buying farmland in many nations over the last decade. A Chinese firm, Shuanghui International Holdings Ltd, also was allowed to buy Virginia-based Smithfield Foods – the largest pork producer in the world and one of America’s largest meatpackers for $4.7 billion – more than the company’s book value – in 2013. Some American consumers have complained that the price they pay for sausage and bacon has climbed as more and more of the company’s U.S. pork is exported to China.
While young American farmers struggle to raise money to buy land to get into the farming business or grow an inherited farm, foreign investors own 40 million acres of American farmland, and foreign investments in American farmland is a growing trend.
Katie Britt is the ranking member of the Homeland Security subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Appropriations and a member of the National Security and International Trade and Finance Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
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