Federal Agencies in the Dark About China’s US Farmland Purchase, New Report Reveals

‘Growing foreign ownership of U.S. farmland, particularly by China, poses a direct threat to our food security and national security.’

A farm near Carmi, Ill., on Oct. 4, 2008. Scott Olson/Getty Images

Federal agencies don’t have reliable information on China’s purchases of U.S. farmland because of “flawed” data collection and reporting processes, a new government report has found.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) needs to move away from its manual, paper-form-based foreign farmland purchase data collection process and share the information with other agencies more often than once a year, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report released on Jan. 18.