Foreign Investors Held 47 Million Acres of U.S. Farmland Through 2024

Foreign nationals held interests in more than 47 million acres of U.S. agricultural land as of Dec. 31, 2024 — 3.6% of all privately owned ag land, according to USDA figures cited in a new Congressional Research Service report. Holdings have grown by more than 2.4 million acres a year on average since 2017.

What does this change for growers and land markets? Right now, nothing on the ground. Federal law imposes no limit on foreign farmland ownership. The Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (AFIDA) of 1978-style disclosure regime only requires foreign nationals to report acquisitions and transfers to USDA within 90 days.

That reporting framework is now in play on Capitol Hill. The House passed a farm bill carrying AFIDA amendments on Apr. 30. The Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry reported its own version on Sept. 24. Several standalone bills cover the same ground:

• H.R. 7567, the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026 — would amend AFIDA, add USDA as a member of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), and restrict land purchases by foreign adversaries.
• S. 5526, the Agricultural Act of 2026 — would tighten AFIDA reporting and penalties, including disclosure of leases running five years or longer.
• S. 4192, the PLOT Act of 2026 from Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) — would require geospatial boundary data in AFIDA filings. It sits in the Senate Agriculture Committee.

Who owns the acres?

Canada accounts for 34% of foreign-held acres, USDA data show. Five countries together control 61%. Chinese investors hold 247,659 acres — roughly 0.5% of all foreign holdings, a figure lawmakers opposed to adversary investment rarely lead with.

Some members of Congress frame foreign investment, particularly near sensitive military sites, as a national security risk. A 2024 Government Accountability Office report found gaps in how USDA collects AFIDA data and shares it with CFIUS. CFIUS reviews do not regularly draw on AFIDA data at all.

The Trump administration waded in too. Its National Farm Security Action Plan, released in late 2025, calls foreign-owned farmland a potential threat to national security.

USDA's proposed rule

A USDA proposed rule published June 25 would move AFIDA administration to the USDA Office of Homeland Security. It would also mandate reports on leases longer than one year and tier civil penalties based on whether a filer is tied to a foreign adversary. The comment period closed Aug. 10.

Pushback came on two fronts. Some commenters argue that expanding the definition of agricultural land to cover solar and wind generation may exceed AFIDA's statutory authority. Others flag administrative burdens from geospatial reporting requirements and a lower ownership disclosure threshold.

Where states fit in

States can act independently. The National Agricultural Law Center counts no state that bans all foreign ownership outright, and state approaches vary widely.

The bottom line: amending AFIDA would likely yield more data and sharper oversight, but it won't settle every national security or food security question. CRS notes that resolving those questions may span several agencies — CFIUS among them — and Congress may push for formal USDA-CFIUS information sharing or a codified USDA seat on the committee.