Missouri Senate Approves to Limit Foreign Ownership of Farmland

Missouri lawmakers want to limit how much agriculture land is foreign owned, and the legislation approved this week would pump the breaks entirely on any foreign entity acquiring more farmland.

About .3% of the state’s farmland is currently foreign owned, but a bill moving forward in Jefferson City would not only reduce the amount of agriculture land that can be owned by a foreign entity, but it would prohibit any future sale, which some say is unfair to landowners.

“We’re going to as a state, decide what private businesses can be sold to what entity,” Sen. Lincoln Hough, R-Springfield, said. “That’s how I see this.”

Months after a Chinese spy balloon traversed Missouri, lawmakers want to put an end to selling off farmland to those overseas.

“Yes, this is a property rights issue because we are protecting Missouri’s property, we’re protecting this nation’s property,” Sen. Rick Brattin, R-Harrisonville, said.

Last month, the House passed its own version of limiting how much land is owned by a foreign entity in the state. The House’s version also prohibited five countries, China, Russia, Iran, North Korea and Venezuela from buying anymore land. That provision was stripped out of the Senate’s version.

“With those definitions on restricted countries, there’s already a template in place at the federal government, but we want to make sure here in the State of Missouri, we have control of that as well,” Rep. Mike Haffner, R-Pleasant Hill, said.

Haffner sponsored the legislation in the House. After the Senate’s changes, he said the General Assembly will continue to talk through it and let the legislative process play out.

Brattin is heading the legislation in the Senate, where members agreed to restrict any foreign entity from acquiring farmland moving forward.

“There is nothing that prohibits an individual from selling their land but yes, we’re going to put prohibitions of who in the world we’re going to sell too,” Brattin said. “Are we going to sell to Osama bin Laden? To other foreign adversaries that wish to destroy our nation?”



Source: fox2now.com

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