Companies from China, Russia and other countries blacklisted by the U.S. no longer can buy land near military sites in Missouri — such as nearby Fort Leonard Wood — under an order enacted by the state’s governor recently.
Republican Gov. Mike Parson’s executive order prohibits citizens and companies from countries deemed threatening by the federal government from purchasing farms or other land within 10 miles of staffed military sites in the state. The federal government lists China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro as foreign adversaries.
Parson’s move comes after a Chinese spy balloon’s flight across the U.S. lent momentum to decades long national security concerns about foreign land ownership.
Republican Senate President Caleb Rowden has said passing such a law is a top priority for the session that began Jan 3.
“While we have had no issues at this point, we want to be proactive against any potential threats,” Parson said.
Parson added that foreign entities currently do not own any land within 10 miles of military sites in the state.
Foreign entities and individuals control less than 2% of all U.S. land, and Chinese companies control less than 1% of that, according to the latest available report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which includes 2022 data. Canadian investors own the largest percentage of foreign-held land.
Missouri was among several Midwest states to pass laws in the 1970s that prohibited or restricted foreign land ownership amid concerns over Japanese investment. Missouri law completely banned foreign land ownership until 2013, when lawmakers passed a bill allowing as much as 1% of agricultural land to be sold to foreign entities.
Parson, along with every other state senator present for the vote, voted in favor of the bill, which also included changes to Missouri’s animal abuse and neglect law and a longer maximum prison sentence for stealing livestock.
Chinese entities owned 42,596 acres of Missouri agricultural land as of 2021 — just a little under half of the roughly 100,000 agricultural acres owned by all foreign entities, according to the Missouri Department of Agriculture. Much of that land is used for corporate hog farms in northern Missouri and is owned by a Chinese conglomerate that purchased Smithfield Foods Inc. in 2013.
Limitations on foreign individuals or entities owning farmland vary widely throughout the U.S. At least 24 states have restrictions.