Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD) warned Sunday that the United States needs to “wake up” and take “aggressive action” against China, preventing it from buying up farmland in the United States.
Noem’s statement comes a few days after she backed Congressional legislation that would prevent China and other countries, including Russia, North Korea, and Iran, from purchasing farmland on United States soil. The South Dakota governor hopes that the bill becomes a part of the National Defense Authorization Act and warned that China aims to eliminate the U.S. to become “the world-dominating power.”
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“So for 25 years, I’ve worked on food policy, I’ve watched them buy up our fertilizer companies, our chemical companies, they own our processing systems, now they’re purchasing up our land, and America needs to wake up and recognize that aggressive action needs to happen,” Noem said on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo. “We’ve been working to address it in our state, but Congress needs to take action.”
Noem went on to state that actions taken by China in the last few years have resulted in it having control of U.S. mineral and prescription supplies, along with land and food supply. These actions, the governor predicted, could make the U.S. recognize it is “under the control of the CCP.” She said that working against these actions is “why I get out of bed every day.”
The legislation in question was voted on by the Senate in July, overwhelmingly approving an amendment that adds the prevention of future purchases of American agricultural land by foreign adversaries to the annual national defense bill. The Senate passed it with a vote of 91-7; Sens. Jon Tester (D-MT) and Mike Rounds (R-SD) offered the amendment, with Tester stating that “food security is national security.” The seven senators who voted no to the amendment were Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Rand Paul (R-KY), Peter Welch (D-VT), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Mike Lee (R-UT), and Chris Murphy (D-CT).
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As of Sunday, the House of Representatives has yet to vote on the bill, with the Senate vote back in July being the most recent action taken on it.
Farmland is not the only land lawmakers are seeking to protect from purchase by other countries, as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) reintroduced a bill to stop adversaries from acquiring land near military bases and military areas in October. The legislation was cosponsored by Sens. Eric Schmitt (R-MO), Mike Braun (R-IN), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Steve Daines (R-MT), and Tommy Tuberville (R-AL).
