Source: PHOTO: Raymond Boyd/Getty Images
STATEHOUSE — About two percent of Indiana’s farmland is owned by a foreign country and there is concern from lawmakers in the Statehouse that more land could soon be taken over by foreign nations, especially those deemed enemies of the U.S.
There is a bill now moving through the State Senate aimed at cracking down on the purchase of farmland by foreign adversaries. Those include six countries: China, Iran, Russia, Cuba, North Korea, and the “Maduro Regime” of Venezuela.
“House Bill 1183 prohibits adversarial countries of the United States from purchasing or leasing Indiana farmland,” said the bill’s author State Rep. Kendell Culp (R-Rensselaer). “(More specifically) it prohibits an individual, a business entity, public, private, or government entity from owning or leasing a majority interest in Indiana farmland.”
Culp told the State Senate Agriculture Committee on Monday that the goal is for Indiana to do its part in protecting the country’s national security. He said Chinese interests own about 400,000 acres of land in the U.S. and that those numbers are growing at an “alarming rate.”