Foreign ownership of U.S. agricultural land is on the rise as investments in wind farms and other renewable energy projects grow, according to the latest report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The amount of farm and forest land held by investors outside the U.S. totaled 43.4 million acres, an 8.5% increase from 2021 to 2022. Foreign investors now make up 3.4% of privately-held agricultural land and nearly 2% of all U.S. land, the USDA said Tuesday.
Large land purchases in three states accounted for 45% of the difference. Alabama and Michigan saw an uptick in forest land activity, while Colorado’s increase was mostly cropland and pasture.
Seven states saw declines in foreign-owned acres: Arkansas, Illinois, Maine, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon and Vermont.
Farmers and states have raised the alarm about an uptick in foreign ownership of agricultural land, moving to restrict buyers from China or other countries considered adversaries. Several states have passed laws restricting adversarial countries from owning U.S. farmland, with many enacting laws in 2023.
Investors with ties to China held 349,442 acres last year, accounting for less than 1% of the total number of foreign-owned agricultural land in the U.S. In 2021, China’s filings totaled 383,935 acres.
A lot of projects tied to foreign developers revolve around renewable energy projects. Of the 43.4 million acres reported last year, roughly 25% is held by foreign-owned companies with the term “wind” in their names. Those with “solar” represented 3% and “renewable” was less than 1%.
