(Photo courtesy MDAC on X)
Recently, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced the launch of a new online portal designed to streamline reporting of transactions involving U.S. agricultural land by foreign persons. Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce Andy Gipson applauds this move as a new federal enforcement mechanism and encourages all Mississippians to be aware of ongoing foreign land transactions within the state.
The new portal can be accessed at https://www.fsa.usda.gov/documents/foreign-holdings-us-agricultural-land as part of the federal government’s efforts to monitor and protect American farm and food security, as well as agriculture as a whole, which is Mississippi’s largest industry.
“This is a welcome development in the ongoing conversation surrounding national farm and food security, and I applaud the Trump Administration and U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins for their efforts on behalf of the American people,” said Commissioner Gipson. “This online portal is long overdue and I encourage continued awareness among Mississippians as we seek to limit foreign owned land in this country, and in our state.”
In addition to the new portal, the USDA released its annual Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (AFIDA) report to Congress, which updates data through December 2024 on foreign held agricultural land in the United States. The report is available online at https://www.fsa.usda.gov/documents/foreign-holdings-us-agricultural-land?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery.
The latest report shows 1,094,523 acres of land in Mississippi held by foreign interests in 2024, representing 4.5 percent of all privately held agricultural land in the state. Unfortunately, this represents a net increase of 113,141 acres, or an 11.53 percent increase from the prior year, in reported foreign held agricultural land.
“Upon initial review it seems that many, if not most, of the recent acquisitions involve wind and solar companies and other foreign interests, including several purchases by foreign interests with Canadian ties, within the state of Mississippi. With these new numbers, nearly five percent of our farmland is owned by foreign interests, and this should be a wake-up call for all Mississippians,” continued Gipson. “I am deeply concerned that foreign interests now control over one million acres of prime Mississippi farmland, and this is unthinkable. Every acre of farmland lost to foreign interests is an acre that Americans and Mississippians no longer control, and I believe that presents a threat to our food supply and national security. Thankfully, the USDA’s new online reporting tool will enable a more timely and accurate review of these foreign purchases and will allow for quicker reporting and enforcement moving forward.”
The new online portal is part of a broader effort to strengthen enforcement and protect American farmland as USDA continues its implementation of the National Farm Security Action Plan, which can be viewed in its entirety at https://www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/documents/farm-security-nat-sec.pdf.
USDA Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins was also quoted with the new portal announcement. “President Trump is putting America First, and this includes increasing transparency and scrutiny of one of our most valuable national assets, American farmland. We are working to improve reporting of foreign owned land in the United States. This move to streamline the reporting portal will increase compliance and assist our efforts to effectively enforce farm accurate reporting of interests held by foreign adversaries in U.S. farmland,” said Secretary Rollins. “The online portal will allow us to obtain verifiable information about foreign interests in American agricultural land and protect the security of our farmers.”
The new online portal is available at https://www.fsa.usda.gov/documents/foreign-holdings-us-agricultural-land. Users can access the portal with Login.gov, a sign in service that provides secure online access to participate in certain government programs and reporting requirements. The new digital portal will gather the same information found on the current form FSA-153 and those subject to filing may still file using the current FSA-153 hard copy form if desired. However, filers should not duplicate filings by using both submission options.
Filers will now be able to directly report transactions involving U.S. agricultural land by foreign persons, which can include businesses and governments, under the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978, online. The new portal is part of USDA’s efforts to streamline its process for electronic submission and retention of AFIDA disclosures, as initially required by the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023. Today USDA also shared its annual AFIDA report for 2024 with Congress, which is available online. The report lists foreign holdings of U.S. agricultural land as 46 million acres, as of December 31, 2024, and includes a section on land held and acquired by China, Russia, Iran and North Korea in recent years.
AFIDA became law in 1978, and its regulations were created to establish a nationwide system for the collection of information pertaining to foreign ownership of U.S. agricultural land. The regulations require foreign investors who acquire, transfer or hold an interest in U.S. agricultural land to report such holdings and transactions to the Secretary of Agriculture.