Mississippi group will probe foreign government ownership of farmland

Gov. Tate Reeves signed into law a bill that would create a study committee to investigate a possible ban of foreign government ownership of Mississippi farmland.

House Bill 280 was authored by state Rep. Becky Currie, R-Brookhaven. It creates a study commission that consists of the state agriculture commissioner or their designee, the attorney general or their designee, the chairmen of the Judiciary A and Agriculture committees from both the state House and Senate, and appointees by the governor, lieutenant governor and House speaker.

As originally written, the bill would've banned majority ownership of Mississippi farmland by a foreign government or a state-owned enterprise.

The study committee will investigate and provide a report on:

The total amount of agricultural land that is under foreign ownership and the percentage of change in foreign ownership over the past decade.What purposes to which foreign-owned agricultural land in Mississippi is being put to use currently, including any significant recent changes or trends in the use to which foreign-owned agricultural land in Mississippi is being put to use.Foreign ownership of water rights, energy production and water desalination facilities and any changes related to those.The state department of agriculture's assessment of any recent changes in foreign land ownership, along with impacts on water rights and food security.Whether there are any current prohibitions on the foreign ownership of Mississippi land and why such prohibitions are not being enforced.Any recommendations by the state agriculture department.

The bill passed 114-3 in the House on Feb. 8 and the Senate unanimously on March 8. It goes into effect on July 1.

Alarms are being sounded nationwide over the practice considering rising food costs and supply chain issues left over from the COVID-19 related lockdowns.

According to the latest report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture from 2021, foreign investors held ownership stakes in approximately 40 million acres of U.S. agricultural land (forest land and farm land) as of Dec. 31, 2021. This is an increase of over 2.4 million acres from the 2020 report and represents 3.1% of all privately held agricultural land in the U.S.