Foreign Owned Farmland Acres Increasing
Faith Parum, Ph.D.
Deputy Chief Economist
Chad Smith
Associate News Service Editor, NAFB
Faith Parum, Ph.D.
Deputy Chief Economist
Chad Smith
Associate News Service Editor, NAFB
The share of foreign-owned U.S. land continues to increase. Chad Smith tells us despite growing numbers, overall foreign-owned farmland remains a small percentage of total acreage.
Smith: In 2024, foreign entities controlled an increasing number of agricultural acres. Faith Parum, the deputy chief economist for the American Farm Bureau Federation, talked through the numbers.
Parum: In 2024, foreign entities held approximately 47 million acres of U.S. ag land. That's up about 90 percent since 2010, and accounts for about 3.6 percent of total ag land in the United States.
Smith: China has been scrutinized recently for controlling agriculture land in the U.S., but China represents less than 1-percent of foreign-owned farmland.
Parum: Canada and Europe currently hold the most U.S. land. It is important to know that this isn't always outright ownership, but can be leasing land. And so, we typically see a lot of forest land and renewable energy projects be owned by foreign entities. So, a farmer may still hold the land, but they lease out part of it to companies to do renewable energy projects that have foreign investors.
Smith: Parum talked about which states have the most foreign-owned farmland.
Parum: We see the highest ownership of foreign farmland in Texas, but really all of our states are starting to see more investment in foreign ownership. Again, not all of this is outright ownership; some of it is just those long-term leases. But all of that continues to, you know, press on farmers' minds as we think about how do we preserve farmland? Who do we want owning farmland? Foreign ownership remains relatively small.
Smith: You can read more about the latest data on foreign-owned agriculture land by going to the Farm Bureau Intel page at FB.org. Chad Smith, Washington.
