Foreign investment in U.S. farmland on the rise
By Johnathan Hettinger and Robert Holly with additional reporting by Jelter Meers/Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting
June 22, 2017
Link:
https://investigatemidwest.org/2017/06/22/foreign-investment-into-u-s-farmland-on-the-rise/
(snips)
In 2013, the Chinese firm Shuanghui received wide public attention when it purchased U.S. pork producer Smithfield Foods for a record $4.7 billion.
In an overlooked part of the deal, Shuanghui also acquired more than 146,000 acres of farmland across the United States, worth more than $500 million, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data.
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Indeed, over the past decade, foreign companies have been investing in agricultural land in the United States at a record pace, according to a Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting analysis of USDA data. The data was compiled from 1900 to 2014 under the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (AFIDA).
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The database shows that between 2004 and 2014, the amount of agricultural land held by foreign investors doubled from 13.7 million acres to 27.3 million acres — an area roughly the size of Tennessee.
It's not only foreign control of land that is of concern. It's also the fact that they're helping to suck our aquifers and river systems dry (along with greedy Americans).
Therefore, in summary, America is loosing precious water table and farm land so Saudis can feed their cows, horses and camels,
enabled by our buying their oil. China is enabled by our buying megatons of their cheap merchandise.
= new reply since forum marked as read
