WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., joined Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and other Trump administration officials Tuesday to support a new plan to ban Chinese buyers and foreign adversaries from purchasing farm and timberland.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture launched the Trump administration’s National Farm Security Action Plan outside the agency’s headquarters. The seven-point plan includes securing U.S. farmland, enhancing supply chains and protecting critical infrastructure.
“China is a threat,” Tuberville said at the press conference. “We’ve got to fight back. They are coming into our country and buying our farmland.”
Tuberville referenced that nearly 2.2 million acres, most of it forests, in Alabama are owned by those foreign countries, according to a 2023 USDA report. Alabama ranked fourth out of the states with the most foreign-owned farm and forestland. Investors in the Netherlands own the most, followed by Canada.
“It’s embarrassing, what we’ve done,” Tuberville said. “Now, don’t blame the farmers. The farmers have to make a living. And if they can’t make a living, they have to sell their farmland.”
Rollins said the Agriculture Department will work with states and federal partners to defend America’s food supply against foreign threats.
“American agriculture is not just about feeding our families, but about protecting our nation and standing up to foreign adversaries who are buying our farmland, stealing our research and creating dangerous vulnerabilities in the very systems that sustain us,” Rollins said. “Reshoring and nearshoring our food and agriculture supply chain is essential for our nation’s security,” Rollins said.
Chinese investors owned about 277,000 acres of farmland across the country at the end of 2023, according to USDA data.
Tuberville has been focused over the years on pushing for legislation aimed at increasing oversight of foreign purchases of farmland. Earlier this year, he reintroduced the Protecting America’s Agricultural Land from Foreign Harm Act that would prevent any individual or entity tied to the governments of Iran, North Korea, China, or Russia from buying or leasing U.S. agricultural land.
The senator, who is also running for governor, also supports a bill to strengthen reporting requirements for foreign owners of farmland.
Rollins announced Tuesday that as the nation’s agriculture chief, she will join the Treasury Department’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which oversees national security risks of foreign investments in the United States. Tuberville had previously advocated for the secretary to be added to the committee.
“We have to get the Secretary of Agriculture on CFIUS to protect our farmland,” he said. “If we don’t do it, we’re going to continue to lose at the end of the day.”
During the press conference, Rollins also said there would be “no amnesty” for immigrants who entered the country illegally and who are working in agricultural jobs.
“Mass deportations continue, but in a strategic and intentional way, as we move our workforce toward more automation and toward a 100% American workforce,” she said.
Rollins said the administration should ensure deportations don’t compromise the U.S. food supply.