Gov. Kim Reynolds in a newly filed bill wants state lawmakers to grant Iowa’s attorney general more power when investigating foreign owners of Iowa farmland and to ratchet up penalties on non-U.S. buyers that fail to comply with regulations.
“As I traveled across the state, farmers and concerned Iowans have expressed the need for tougher legislation and I agree,” Reynolds said in a statement Wednesday on the pending bill, filed Thursday. “Iowa has been a leader with one of the toughest foreign land ownership laws in the country being enacted back in the seventies.
“Allowing foreign adversaries to undermine the agricultural dominance of our farmers only makes America weaker. American farmland should remain in American hands,” she said.
Iowa’s law says foreign owners can purchase up to 320 acres of farmland but must convert it to other uses ― such as industrial ― within five years. The law allows some exceptions to the restrictions, such as inheritances and land use for research.
While foreign ownership of U.S. farmland has become a political hot-button issue, most of the foreign land holdings in Iowa — which reached nearly 514,000 acres in 2022 — are long-term leases for wind, solar and other renewable energy projects, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data.