In 1978, Paul Harvey delivered his famous speech, “So God Made a Farmer.” Coincidentally, the very same year of that famous speech, my grandfather and father fulfilled a lifelong dream and established McNair Farms, a beef cattle operation and row crop farm, in Learned. It did not come easy, but my kin had an unparalleled work ethic and devotion to agriculture. This directly correlated to providing for our family’s needs.

At one time, there were many families in Marion, Missouri, just like mine. However, their ability to provide for their families was stripped away when a foreign country was granted rights to thousands of acres in their area.

Forbes Magazine reported that a growing demand due to large populations, rising production costs and repeated concerns about quality “formed the basis of Shanghai International’s quest to acquire a North American meat producer.” In March 2013, the executives of Smithfield Foods began working with Chinese officials to sell the company and its 40,000 acres of Missouri farmland in Marion County to China.

At the time, Missouri had laws prohibiting foreign ownership of agricultural land. But, as a huge political player, Smithfield convinced politicians to change those rules, and a Chinese multinational corporation quickly purchased Smithfield for $4.27 billion.

This is one example of how American soil is becoming less American when it comes to ownership. An analysis of all land owned in the U.S. reveals one solution that could significantly impact our country’s future: foreign ownership of farmland should be limited in an effort to stop the deprivation of America’s ability to produce its own food, fuel, and fiber domestically.

Current federal law imposes no restrictions on the amount of private U.S. agricultural land that can be foreign-owned. However, Mississippi has what some call “the strangest set of mystery foreign ownership of agricultural land laws of any state.” The laws, dating back to the early 1900s, have a statute in place for the nonresident alien who wants to own land in the state and a constitutional article giving the Mississippi Legislature power to make a law to enact laws to limit, restrict and prevent it.

Numerous bills regarding this issue were introduced during the 2023 Mississippi Legislative Session, and because there is no uniformity from state-to-state on foreign ownership land laws, the Legislature formed a study committee to research the issue and formulate the best legislation to enact during the 2024 Mississippi Legislative Session. The study committee will be comprised of nine members, including a representative from Farm Bureau, and will be required to provide a report to the Legislature by December 1, 2023.

Taylor McNair is the Public Policy Coordinator at the Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation.