The Biden administration is failing to properly track
foreign ownership of U.S. farmlands and doesn't appear to have a plan to begin tracking that data, according to an investigation by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).
According to a GAO report detailing the findings of its investigation, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) has failed to consistently share timely
data on foreign investments in U.S. agricultural land as required under the 1978 Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (AFIDA). Further, Pentagon officials told investigators, according to the report, that USDA needs to regularly provide more up-to-date and specific AFIDA data.
"Sharing current data could help increase visibility into potential national security risks related to foreign investments in U.S. agricultural land," the GAO report, which was published late Thursday, states. "USDA implements AFIDA across field offices and headquarters, but its processes to collect, track, and report key information are flawed."
The GAO investigation concluded that USDA collects AFIDA data on paper forms filed with county or federal offices, but that its process is "unclear and challenging to implement." And USDA also has no plans and timelines to create an online AFIDA database despite Congress mandating the agency create one by 2025.
Finally, the government watchdog agency's review of AFIDA data — the most recent of which is from 2021 — found the USDA has published errors such as reporting the largest land holding
associated with China twice.
"This report confirms one of our worst fears: that not only is the USDA unable to answer the question of who owns what land and where, but that there is no plan by the department to internally reverse this dangerous flaw that affects our supply chain and economy," Congressional Western Caucus Chairman Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., said. "Food security is national security, and we cannot allow foreign adversaries to influence our food supply while we stick our heads in the sand."
"I will, in my capacity as a member of the Select Committee on the CCP, Chairman of the Western Caucus, and as a member of the House Appropriations Committee, be working to introduce measures aimed at fixing USDA’s internal reporting and data management to identify to Congress, and the American people, exactly who is investing in the over 40 million acres of U.S. farm land reported to have ties to foreign actors," he continued.
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