Proposed and advanced by a legislative committee in Louisiana on Thursday is a prohibition on the sale of agricultural land to foreign adversaries including North Korea, Iran, China, Russia, and Venezuela.
The legislation received approval from the House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture, Forestry, Aquaculture, and Rural Development.
Representative Michael Echols’s (R-Monroe) proposal is now accompanied by a fiscal remark. Should it receive support in Appropriations, it might be put to a vote on the chamber floor.
Echols’ bill proposes a prohibition on the sale of agricultural land to residents or agents from five countries. Additionally, it grants the authority of the state attorney general’s office to initiate legal proceedings against landowners associated with an adversary or to seek an injunction against any attempt by an agent of one of those nations to acquire farmland within the state.
Violators of the proposed legislation may be subject to a forfeiture of the land and a civil penalty of $50,000 if the acquired land is not sold within one year of the filing of a lawsuit.
The fiscal note issued by the Legislative Financial Office projects that taxpayers may incur annual expenses ranging from $546,000 to $620,000.
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Representative John Wyble, Republican of Franklin and Knoxleton, served as the bill’s cosponsor and introduced it before the committee. He stated that the agricultural sector is vital to the nation as a whole and not just the province.
“This is really about the economic impact and security around our food production and our ability to continue to do so,” Wyble pointed out. “We should safeguard the largest industry in our state in terms of economic volume with every effort and measure we undertake.” Regardless of location, that affects every individual.
A similar bill that passed both chambers during the previous session was vetoed by then-Gov. John Bel Edwards, and an attempt to override the veto failed by a single vote.
Foreign ownership accounts for approximately 21.1% of acreage, or 43.4 million acres of farmland in the United States, according to Agriculture Commissioner Mike Strain. According to him, that percentage was approximately 8.3% in Louisiana, and the majority of the land was owned by Canadians for timber purposes.
“The concern we have and we’ve discussed that and there’s been the federal government trying to figure that out is when foreign ‘bad actors,’ when they’re buying the land,” Strain pointed out. “When they buy land strategically or they buy land near our industrial bases or buy land next to our military bases.”
Louisiana is home to two vital military installations. For the Army’s Joint Readiness Training Center, Barksdale Air Force Base houses the Joint Readiness Training Center, whereas Fort Johnston (formerly Fort Polk) houses one of the Air Force’s two B-52 bomber squadrons.
Syngenta, according to Strain, is the Swedish owner of several hundred acres. Issues have arisen subsequent to its acquisition by a Chinese corporation.
Senior analyst at the Center for Security Policy Christopher Holton informed the committee that the measure, similar to others that were passed in twenty-one other states including Arkansas, was designed to restrict purchases by foreign adversaries and not all foreign entities.
Holton provided the acquisition of 140,000 acres of land in Texas, adjacent to Lackland Air Force Base, by an entity owned by a former Chinese Communist Party official and People’s Liberation Army officer as an example.
According to him, the Texas Legislature passed a bill to prohibit similar acquisitions by foreign adversaries as a consequence of that purchase.