Policy Backgrounders

USDA’s Farm Security Plan Links Agriculture to National Security

July 23, 2025

Earlier this month, the US Department of Agriculture released a National Farm Security Action Plan to elevate US agriculture as a key element of national security. While the plan features several pillars ranging from securing food supply chains to addressing biothreats, a key focus of the plan is the purchase of US agricultural land by foreign adversaries, particularly China.

• US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Brooke L. Rollins signed a memorandum of understanding between USDA and the Department of the Treasury as chair of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS), making USDA a CFIUS member for investment reviews concerning foreign transactions involving agricultural land.
• As of the end of 2023, foreign investment in US agricultural land amounted to nearly 46 million acres, with over 277,335 acres of land held by China across 117 counties and 30 states.
• Secretary Rollins said that the Administration is working on different avenues, including Presidential authorities, to claw back land already purchased by foreign adversaries. Several states have enacted or are considering legislation to prevent companies with ties to foreign adversaries from acquiring or holding US agricultural land.
• USDA signed a memorandum removing 70 foreign citizens affiliated with USDA’s  Agricultural Research Service; the majority of the dismissed employees are Chinese post-doctoral researchers on two-year contracts.

Linking Agriculture to National Security

On July 8, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins, along with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, announced USDA’s National Farm Security Action Plan to elevate US agriculture as a key element of national security. The seven-pronged approach ranges widely, from securing agricultural supply chains and preventing nutrition benefits fraud to protecting animals and soil from biothreats, but focuses on addressing threats from foreign adversaries. “This vital sector is a known target for terrorists and malicious actors,” according to the report, which notes that foreign adversaries have purchased farmland, smuggled potential bioterrorism agents, and conducted malicious cyberoperations against food processors, among other actions.

Foreign Ownership of Farmland

The plan’s first pillar addresses the ownership of US agricultural land by foreign nationals, identifying farmland held by nationals of “countries of concern” as a potential threat to “national security and future economic prosperity,” and commits USDA to ensuring transparency of agricultural land ownership. USDA plans to work with Congress and state officials to prohibit direct or indirect land purchases by entities tied to foreign adversaries.

As a component of the plan, USDA announced the release of a Foreign Land Purchases map that indicates which countries own land in the US. The map tracks in which county the land is located rather than the geographic bounds of the land. Users may search by country to determine the total acreage and number of counties in which the country owns land. According to the map which includes data through 2023, foreign investment in US agricultural land amounts to nearly 46 million acres, with over 277,335 acres of land held by China across 117 counties and 30 states.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a report in January 2024 finding that USDA does not share timely data on foreign investments in agricultural land collected under the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978 (AFIDA), as amended (AFIDA). AFIDA was created to establish a nationwide system for the collection of information pertaining to foreign ownership of US agricultural land. Regulations under the Act require foreign investors who acquire, transfer, or hold an interest in US agricultural land to report these holdings to USDA. The report also found that USDA AFIDA data published to CFIUS agencies is too limited and infrequent. For example, the Department of Defense uses this information to determine if transactions pose national security risk, such as the proximity of agricultural land to a sensitive military base.

The plan includes a new web portal for the public to report possible under- or failed reporting and compliance with respect to AFIDA. Further, Rollins signed a memorandum of understanding between USDA and the Department of the Treasury as chair of CFIUS, making USDA a CFIUS member, for investment CFIUS reviews concerning foreign transactions involving agricultural land, agriculture biotechnology, agricultural businesses, or the agriculture industry, in accordance with Section 787 of the omnibus appropriations bill Congress passed last year.  

Will the Administration Claw Back Chinese-Owned Land?

Secretary Rollins stated that the Administration is working on different avenues, including Presidential authorities, to claw back land already purchased by adversaries. When asked about land owned by Chinese agribusiness giants Smithfield Foods and Syngenta, Rollins suggested that the President may son issue an Executive Order; “[w]e’ll be looking at multiple, different authorities within the federal government to begin to claw that back.”

Smithfield Foods, which was purchased by Hong-Kong based WH Group in 2013, currently accounts for approximately one-eighth of the world’s pork supply. The company’s return to the US stock market in January 2025 came as the new Administration began putting pressure on trade with China, which would hurt US pork exports. Parent company WH Group planned to retain a roughly 90% stake in Smithfield at the time of the listing. In a statement, Smithfield Foods noted that CFIUS approved its acquisition by WH Group in 2013. "Our products are produced in the United States, and the vast majority are consumed in the U.S. We primarily export offal to China, cuts of the pig that are not typically consumed in the U.S."

Syngenta, which is entirely owned by Sinochem, a Chinese state-owned enterprise, also said that CFIUS had examined its land holdings and business acquisitions, noting that its global headquarters is in Switzerland and that “multiple” Americans hold leadership positions in the company. Further, Syngenta said that it is currently in the process of “selling its remaining farmland in the US and currently owns less than 1,000 agricultural acres,” used for developing and testing products locally given how soybeans respond to different soil types.

Several states have enacted or are considering legislation to prevent companies with ties to China or other foreign adversaries from acquiring or holding US agricultural land. In October 2023, Arkansas ordered Syngenta to sell 160 acres of farmland in the state within two years. The move was the state’s first enforcement under Acts 636 and 758, legislative measures passed in 2023 prohibiting certain foreign entities from acquiring or holding land. Syngenta Seeds LLC sold over 150 acres in Craighead County, located in the northeast region of the state, in May 2025, according to the Craighead County Assessor’s Office.

A Federal appeals court blocked a Florida law restricting Chinese citizens from buying land in February 2024, with one judge saying the law “blatantly violates the Fourteenth Amendment’s protection against discrimination.” Despite this decision, USDA’s plan says that the Agency will “work alongside State and Congressional partners where applicable to take swift legislative or executive action to end the direct or indirect purchase or control of American farmland by nationals from countries of concern or other foreign adversaries.”