Is China Buying Up U.S. Farmland? What the Numbers Actually Say

Foreign ownership of U.S. farmland is a political lightning rod, but economist Danny Munch from the American Farm Bureau Federation walks through what the data actually says. Using USDA’s AFIDA reports, he explains that only about 3.61% of privately held U.S. ag land (roughly 48–49 million acres) is foreign-owned, and more than 60% of that is held by allies like Canada, the Netherlands, Italy, the U.K., and Germany. Much of the recent growth is tied to renewable energy leases and timber, not foreign governments trying to control food production. China, despite endless headlines, is associated with roughly 277,000 acres—about the size of one average Ohio county—while individual billionaires like Bill Gates own similar amounts and are arguably more influential through narrative and advocacy than acreage. The episode also digs into data gaps, shell companies, national security reviews, and why Farm Bureau members are just as worried about preserving private property rights as they are about foreign flags on land titles.

Episode takeaways:

• Foreign investors own about 3.61% of privately held U.S. agricultural land (≈48.8 million acres), and over 99% of all U.S. land is either U.S.-owned or held by countries generally considered allies.

• Canada alone holds about 15.35 million acres—more than a third of all foreign-owned U.S. ag land—followed by European players like the Netherlands and Italy, with large positions in timber and renewable energy, not row-crop land grabs.

• The big run-up in foreign-owned acres since 2010 is driven heavily by wind and solar leases plus timber, not foreign control of food production; roughly half of foreign-held ag land is forest land.

• China’s ownership, after USDA data corrections, is roughly 277,000 acres, about half of which came through acquisition of a U.S. pork company and another big chunk from a now-blocked Texas renewable project—politically noisy, but tiny in acreage and not a serious land-based strategy for national security.

• AFIDA data is the best tool we have, but it’s messy: weak enforcement, paper forms, limited staffing, and only tracing ownership three tiers deep mean shell structures and Cayman Islands registrations can obscure the “warm bodies” behind some acres.

• Farm Bureau members are increasingly uneasy about private mega-owners and narrative power (think billionaires and foundations) and about bad laws passed for headlines, not solutions—especially when those laws threaten core private property rights and ignore existing tools like CFIUS, which already reviews and can block risky foreign transactions.

American Farm Bureau Federation

https://www.fb.org/

Foreign Investment in U.S. Ag Land – The Latest Numbers

https://www.fb.org/market-intel/foreign-investment-in-u-s-ag-land-the-latest-numbers

How it Works — Understanding the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States

https://www.fb.org/market-intel/how-it-works-understanding-the-committee-on-foreign-investment-in-the-united-states

Foreign Footprints: Trends in U.S. Agricultural Land Ownership

https://www.fb.org/market-intel/foreign-footprints-trends-in-u-s-agricultural-land-ownership

National Land Realty - Buy, Sell, Lease, or Auction Land

https://www.nationalland.com