Nearly 5.3 million acres of ag land in Texas are owned by foreign entities.
Texas has seen the greatest increase in foreign-owned agricultural land and also leads the nation in agricultural land owned by foreign entities, according to a recent report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The report shows that nearly 5.3 million acres of ag land in Texas are owned by foreign entities, based on the USDA’s 2021 revised data, up by nearly 549,000 acres the year before. The latest figure represents 3.4 percent of the state’s forestland, cropland, and pastureland and sits slightly above the national percentage of 3.1 percent. (pdf)
Texas, along with many other states, has no restrictions on who can purchase agricultural land.
Failed Legislation
Earlier this year, Texas Sen. Lois Kolkhorst authored legislation that would ban citizens, governments, and other entities of adversarial countries from purchasing farmland and homes in the state of Texas.
Senate Bill 147 was written to mirror and build on Senate Bill 2216, known as the Lone Star Infrastructure Protection Act, according to a news release. (pdf)
The earlier legislation, filed in 2021, was in response to the purchase of about 140,000 acres near Laughlin Air Force in Del Rio, Texas, by billionaire Guangxin Sun, a Chinese investor with deep ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Mr. Sun’s plans to build a wind farm set off alarms in the Texas legislature. They feared the CCP-linked investor would provide Beijing with access to the state’s electrical grid.
The measure was unanimously passed in the legislature and signed into law.
Ms. Kolkhorst’s recent proposed legislation, SB 147, received pushback from some Democratic lawmakers, such as state Rep. Gene Wu, who argued the bill was unfair to those who immigrate to the United States from hostile countries.
In late April, a watered-down version of the bill was approved in the Senate. The revised bill removed the restrictions for permanent residents and dual citizens to purchase property in the state.
By Jana J. Pruet
