Recent analysis of foreign ag land ownership showed rising numbers in the United States.
Two additional years of data from 2022 and 2023 became available recently, and Danny Munch, an economist with the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), noted only a small portion of that land is held by adversarial nations.
“Foreign ownership of U.S. ag land increased by 1.6 million acres, reaching a total of 45.9 million acres, which represents 3.6% of total privately-held ag land in the United States,” Munch said. “Interestingly, land ownership by Chinese, Russian and Iranianbased investors decreased by 36,000 acres, or 9%, to the smallest levels in a few years.”
Munch said the United States’ northern neighbor holds a majority of foreign-owned land.
“Canada leads overwhelmingly with ownership of U.S. ag land in terms of foreign owners, holding 15.4 million acres or about a third of all foreign owned ag land in the country,” he said. “Following Canada, you Much of those investments are tied to timber and renewable energy, but there are still concerns regarding foreign ownership of American agricultural land.
“Generally, concerns about foreign ownership of U.S. farmland often center around national security and food security,” Munch said. “Some worry that adversarial nations could use land acquisitions for purposes contrary to U.S. interests, like controlling critical resources. Others are concerned about converting farmland into non-ag uses like renewable energy projects.”
In Texas, foreign ownership of ag land is at about 5.3 million acres or 3.41%, which is slightly higher than the national average of 3.1%.