On Wednesday, during a press conference at USDA headquarters in Washington, DC, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced the National Farm Security Action Plan, aimed at banning the purchase of U.S. farmland by foreign adversaries, mostly notably China:
Rollins: "American agriculture is not just about feeding our families but about protecting our nation and standing up to foreign adversaries who are buying our farmland, stealing our research, and creating dangerous vulnerabilities in the very systems that sustain us. Re-shoring and near-shoring our food and agriculture supply chain is essential for our nation's security."
(See more details on the Action Plan below)
Dr. Greg Murphy represents North Carolina's Third Congressional District. During an appearance Wednesday on Washington Watch, the GOP lawmaker praised the Ag Secretary's announcement.
"Knowing how nefarious and maligned the Communist Party of China is, you can't take anything for granted," he stated. "I've said this many times: I believe we are at war with China. It's not ballistically, but it's economically, it's agriculturally, it's via trade. It is every other way that China is trying to get into this nation somehow and gain a foothold.
"If they're able to control our food supply, then all bets are off. This is what we need more than anything: food – and energy, obviously." (See related article)
Secretary Rollins also said on Monday that "too much American land is owned by nationals of adversarial countries, and more than 265,000 acres in the United States are owned by Chinese nationals, much of which is located near critical U.S. military bases."
According to the New York Post, at least 19 of those installations – from Florida to Hawaii – were close enough to allow the Chinese Communist Party to surveil U.S. military operations via drones, radar, infra-red scanning or other tracking technologies.
Murphy agrees with Rollins, saying this is clearly a national security issue.
"It's great for the Trump administration to put the hammer down and not allow it and actually start trying to reclaim some of the land that has been taken up by Chinese foreign nationals already," he said.
According to the USDA, the National Farm Security Action Plan addresses seven critical areas:
- Secure and protect American farmland
- Enhance agricultural supply chain resilience
- Protect U.S. nutrition safety net from fraud and foreign exploitation
- Defend agricultural research and innovation
- Put America first in every USDA program
- Safeguard plant and animal health
- Protect critical infrastructure
Read the full plan (PDF)
Farmland image compliments of New York Post
