Rural Routes/Margot Ford McMillen

There’s Lots of Land, But Who Owns It?

Call me crazy, but it’s my opinion that if the two dominant political parties in this nation could work together, they’d get more done for the ordinary citizen. And if they could do some planning together, maybe we could get on top of some of the problems that are holding American youngsters back.

Take for example the ownership of rural land. Right now, farmland prices are at an all-time high and youngsters who want to get into farming are squeezed out of the market by both prices and availability. Demand comes from big landowners that want more, and from industry that wants to dominate neighborhoods with giant facilities, and from investors drawn like flies to the action. Think Ted Turner, Stan Kroenke, Bill Gates.

The pressures on land ownership once came from companies wanting to site giant Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) on farmland. They came into a neighborhood prepared to bully their way. These giant polluters really have nothing to commend them except that, thanks to their lobbyists, they are in line ahead of small farmers for government subsidies.

CAFOs are inhumane, giant polluters, and to be condemned for hiring the most helpless people in society. Last year a fine of $1.5 million was levied against Packers Sanitation Services, an industry cleaning service, for employing at least 102 children ages 13 to 17 in eight states. In another headline, Tyson employees have asked for an end to child labor in Tyson plants.

Nowadays, farmland demand from CAFOs has been exacerbated by demand from alternative energy producers. Solar and wind farms are beginning to take over the land, securing rights with purchases, easements or eminent domain. And the rush for land by solar and wind generators has created another investor land rush. This all makes it impossible for independent farmers or young farmers to get in the game.

The foreign-owned land issue has created talking points for left-leaning non-profits for many years. In states with Republican statehouses like Missouri, however, it was hard to get attention. So, the amount of land held by foreign-owned investors has continued to climb. Between 2021 and 2022, the USDA estimated an increase of 8.5% in farm and forest land owned by foreign investors—nearly 2% of all US land. Some 43.4 million acres was the amount they came up with.

This is likely an low estimation, because, until very recently, a state like Missouri didn’t track the citizenship of land buyers. A few visible owners, like the China-owned W.H. Group that sells pork labeled “Smithfield,” “Eckrich,” “Nathan’s,” “Farmland,” “Armour” and many more, have been low-hanging fruit for the acre-counters. The Center for Strategic and International Studies, says W.H. Group owns about 42,000 Missouri acres and about 146,000 acres nationally. Missourians know who they are, so their land gets counted, but many more foreign investors are not included in the numbers recorded at county, state or federal levels.

Now it’s time for the good news. The arguments from left-leaning citizens to our right-leaning lawmakers got a little traction in 2023. On the federal level, Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) introduced the Farmland for Farmers Act, a bill designed to keep US land in US hands. Endorsed by more than 20 groups, the act has gotten the attention of a few Republican lawmakers.

The Booker act seeks to correct deficits from the past by ensuring that foreign buyers are counted, curbing speculation and asking corporations to identify themselves. It would also ensure that farm programs are designed to help independent farmers rather than corporate owners.

In Missouri, a recent proclamation by (Republican) Governor Parson made an in-road into change. His Executive Order 24-01 “bans individuals and businesses from nations designated as foreign adversaries from purchasing agricultural land within a 10-mile radius of critical military facilities in the State of Missouri.” “Foreign adversaries” include China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and Venezuela and “critical military facilities” means staffed military facilities in Missouri.

While this effort is more about national security and safeguarding national secrets than it is about land for farmers, the move sends a sign that the word is getting through to Republicans about foreign-owned farmland and gives us something to work with. The governor has signaled that he wants a more inclusive bill and Cory Booker’s federal bill provides an excellent road map and a chance for both sides of the state legislature to work together.

When it comes to problems that need bi-partisan solutions, the examples are everywhere. What if Republican governors worked with Democrat mayors to figure out what to do with migrants at our borders? Shipping migrants into unprepared cities isn’t a solution. It’s just a bully move that hurts all involved.

As long as we continue the us-vs.-them strategies of swaggering lawmanship, there will be no planning to solve the problems of the future. Let’s work together to figure it out.

Margot Ford McMillen farms near Fulton, Mo., and co-hosts “Farm and Fiddle” on sustainable ag issues on KOPN 89.5 FM in Columbia, Mo. Her latest book is “The Golden Lane: How Missouri Women Gained the Vote and Changed History.” Email: margotmcmillen@gmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, February 15, 2024

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