A little known fact about who owns millions of acres of American farmland

Millions of hectares of farmland across the country are privately owned, but a small portion of that is foreign-owned land that lies fallow in many areas. The The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently released data showing how much of the country’s agricultural land is owned by other countries.

The USDA’s online portal shows that more than 45 million hectares of land is owned by foreign countries, with an original purchase value of more than $38 billion. Our neighbor to the north, Canada, has the largest agricultural area in the United States at 15.35 million hectares.

John Hewletta specialist in farm and ranch economics management at University of Wyomingdoes not find this surprising. Instead, he points out that not many people know this farm fact.

“Many people are surprised to learn that Canada is by far the largest foreign holder of American land (with about 33% of the foreign total),” says Hewlett. Realtor.com®. “Followed by the Netherlands and Italy. Because they have long been allies, their ownership of forest land or wind farms rarely causes a stir.”

The Netherlands has 5,197,940 hectares of agricultural land and Italy has more than 2.7 million hectares.

Whether or not this is a concern when it comes to farmland owned by foreigners, Hewlett says “who” depends on what they are trying to protect.

Hewlett divides it into three categories:

• National security: He explains that this group is mainly concerned about proximity. “There have been high-profile cases of foreign entities attempting to purchase land near sensitive military installations or critical infrastructure in the US and around the world,” Hewlett said. Some lawmakers may be “concerned that this could lead to surveillance, espionage or interference with homeland security.”

• Local farmers and rural communities: Hewlett says this is more of an economic problem. “Foreign investors often have deeper pockets than local family farmers, which can drive up land prices,” Hewlett explains. “This makes it more difficult for young or first-generation American farmers to enter the market.”

• Food advocates: Hewlett says this group looks at it through the lens of food sovereignty. “They fear that if a significant portion of the food supply is controlled by foreign adversaries, the US could lose its food independence, leaving the country vulnerable during global supply chain disruptions or trade wars,” Hewlett added.

Local level

In Wyoming, where Hewlett is based, more than 260,000 hectares of farmland is in foreign hands, but that is minuscule compared to other areas.

Among the states with the most foreign investors in farmland are Texas (5,775,516 acres), Maine (3,512,624 acres), Colorado (2,477,247 acres), Alabama (2,210,274 acres), Oklahoma (1,829,711 acres) and Washington (1,787,990 acres).

In Maine, the northernmost state along the East Coast, where nearly 3.5 million acres of land are foreign-owned, there isn’t too much concern about the loss of green space to housing developments.

“It is a misnomer, however, because what is considered agricultural land in Maine is actually forest land, like timberland,” Michelangelo Floridinobroker at Countries of real estate in Portland, ME, tells Realtor.com.

Floridino describes the terrain of Maine and what it is like near the Canadian border.

“If you get about an hour from the New Hampshire-Maine border, it’s a lot of private roads,” he explains. “If you go north for a few hours, you might lose power. You may not even have a paved road to reach these parts of Maine.”

He says there aren’t many concerns if a foreign investor were to try to convert the farmland into infrastructure because of the changing landscape.

“You can’t build houses there,” Floridino says.

As for Canadians buying up real estate in Maine, he says he hasn’t seen much of that lately.

“I’m getting more people from Massachusetts. I just had a call a few weeks ago from Oklahoma coming back to Maine. Another call came from North Carolina,” Floridino added.