Who Are Pete Ricketts and John Fetterman?

My VIPs for this week are Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts and Democrat Sen. John Fetterman who recognized the dangers of Communist China owning American farmland. They recently introduced legislation to stop China from owning our farmland. Quinn Delamater discussed this issue in an article published at The Daily Signal. 

“It’s not just about the number of acres that they [the Chinese] own, but the fact that they own it around Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota or Fort Liberty in North Carolina. They’re buying it around sensitive military installations,” Ricketts, who represents Nebraska, said to Fox News Digital. He said that American farmland should not be a “tool that our adversaries, like Communist China, can use to attack us from inside our own country.”

“I hope many would agree the Chinese government and other U.S. adversaries should own ZERO agricultural land in our great country. This is really a national security issue and also a food security issue. Proud to partner with @Senator Ricketts on this,” Pennsylvania’s Fetterman posted on the social media platform X.

The Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Improvements Act would codify the findings of the Government Accountability Office that say that enhancing efforts to collect, track, and share information about foreign investments in U.S. agricultural land “could better identify national security risks,” according to a report by the office.

Ricketts told Fox News Digital: “We are at the most dangerous point in our history right now since World War II. We have to be investing in our military. We have to be supporting our friends around the world that are pushing back on these dictators. Communist China is one of them.”

According to a report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, China holds 277,336 acres of U.S. land as of Dec. 31, 2023. This is almost 1% of all acres held by foreign entities. Other countries that have larger landholdings include Canada, the Netherlands, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Germany.

The Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Improvements Act seeks to increase the flow of information between the U.S. Treasury’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States and the USDA and would require the disclosure of all foreign persons or entities holding more than a 1% interest in American agricultural land. It will also set up a deadline for the USDA to set up an online system for tracking those foreign agricultural investments, according to a statement released by Ricketts’ office.

I remember when I first learned numerous years ago that China had purchased Smithfield Foods. I was shocked that federal officials would allow such a thing. I wondered why the United States allowed any foreign nation to own American land, especially not China and other sworn enemies of the American way of life. I am pleased to know that some Senators have recognized the dangers in allowing foreign nations to own our farmland.