U.S. Farmland and Foreign Ownership Pt 1
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson. Protecting our nation’s farmlands from foreign adversaries is the idea behind a series of bills introduced by U.S. Representative Dan Newhouse.
The Sunnyside Republican says recent reports show the USDA has no system in place to keep track of American agricultural lands purchased by foreign entities …
NEWHOUSE … “Well, that is a frustration, absolutely, and that’s something that we’re trying to address. In fact, I have a meeting to address exactly that, to come up with ways that the USDA can more readily gather that information and monitor it.”
The problem, Newhouse says has been overlooked …
NEWHOUSE … “The over 8,000 different counties throughout the United States is where these transactions happen. And to collate and gather all of that information, there is not a system in place currently to do that.”
And so, Newhouse says they’re looking into that …
NEWHOUSE … “We are trying to be as creative as possible to come up with a system that will allow USDA to better monitor the sales of agricultural assets at a reasonable cost to the taxpayer. And so those are the questions that we’re looking at right not.”
Tune in tomorrow for more on Representative Newhouse’s effort to improve USDA’s ability to track and regulate foreign ownership of American farmland.
