As reported on AFN, the Trump administration has announced it is launching what it calls a “National Farm Security Action Plan” to protect U.S. farmland from ownership by our adversaries, especially China and its Chinese Communist Party.
Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced the Action Plan last week, at a news conference at USDA headquarters, where she called “re-shoring and near-shoring” food and the agricultural supply chain “essential” to U.S. security.
Rollins explained why the Action Plan is necessary, which is Chinese nationals currently own more than 265,000 acres of farmland. Much of that property is located near military installations, she also pointed out, a fact that has alarmed national security experts for years.
According to the USDA, the National Farm Security Action Plan addresses seven critical areas:
- Secure and protect American farmland
- Enhance agricultural supply chain resilience
- Protect U.S. nutrition safety net from fraud and foreign exploitation
- Defend agricultural research and innovation
- Put America first in every USDA program
- Safeguard plant and animal health
- Protect critical infrastructure
A PDF of the “National Farm Security Action Plan” can be read here.
Rollins was joined at the press conference by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and trade adviser Peter Navarro.
Reacting to the USDA announcement, China critic Gordon Chang calls it an “elemental” step to protect military bases from Chinese surveillance.
“But we've got to remember one thing: No Americans may own a square inch of land in China,” he points out. “So why are we allowing Chinese nationals to own square miles of our land?"
Smithfield purchase reminder of partnership
China and the United States share a complicated business partnership that totaled $688 billion in trade in 2024. That partnership is further complicated by both countries viewing the other as adversaries, but not outright enemies, even though China’s intelligence network has penetrated U.S. academia, military, politics, media, and business.
In a telling U.S.-China business partnership, U.S. pork producer Smithfield Foods sold to a Chinese company, Shuanghui International, in a $4.7 billion deal in 2013. That deal represented the largest Chinese purchase of a U.S. company at the time and also made Shuanghu, now renamed WH Group, a large owner of U.S. farmland.
At last week’s press conference, Navarro mentioned the Smithfield deal by name and said it is an example China is engaging in a different type of warfare against the U.S.
“It is acquiring our supply chain in agriculture,” Navarro said. “It’s setting up spy shops on land next to military bases.”
Chang tells AFN he is optimistic the USDA plan will work by clamping down on Chinese-owned farmland in the U.S. with more restrictions.
“And that's a good thing,” he says. “So it's time for us, when China is preparing for war, to do the same thing."
