A bill moving through the General Assembly would limit foreign adversaries from buying and owning agricultural land within Indiana. (Photo courtesy Randolph County, IN.gov)
A bill to limit who can buy agricultural land in Indiana advanced Monday with bipartisan support.
House Bill 1183 , authored by Rep. Kendell Culp, R-Rensselaer, would prohibit purchasers from “adversarial countries” from owning or leasing Hoosier farmland.
A list of those countries is kept by the U.S. Department of Commerce and currently includes six nations: Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, Cuba and Venezuela.
The proposal builds on a previous measure passed in the 2022 session, which limited foreign entities from buying more than 320 acres in Indiana for crop farming or timber production, among other restrictions.
“This is not just an agricultural issue, this is a food security issue, and we cannot afford to lose control of even a fraction of our food supply — because if we do, then it becomes a national security issue,” Culp said, adding that legislative surveys showed 91% of the respondents in his district were opposed to adversarial countries owning Indiana farmland.