Brooke Rollins drops land bombshell on China with big announcement

Rollins emphasized that this is necessary to safeguard the integrity of domestic food supply.

PUBLISHED JUL 8, 2025

This restriction will extend beyond new transactions to include heightened scrutiny of current holdings.

WASHINGTON D.C.: On July 8, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced that the Biden administration will bar sales of American farmland to Chinese nationals and other “foreign adversaries,” citing critical national-security and food-security imperatives.

At a joint press conference alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Rollins said the administration would pursue a combination of executive actions and partnerships with state governments to immediately halt any such land purchases nationwide.

Secretary Rollins emphasized that this policy shift is necessary to safeguard the integrity of the domestic food supply and to prevent potential adversaries from gaining strategic footholds on U.S. soil.

“We must ensure that our nation’s agricultural heartland remains under American control, for both our security and our families’ wellbeing,” she said.

The USDA plans to issue a series of executive orders that will strengthen the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (AFIDA) reporting requirements, close existing loopholes, and impose stiffer penalties for non-compliance.

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Hegseth underscored the Pentagon’s commitment to blocking any future sales of farmland near military installations.

“No longer can foreign adversaries assume we’re not watching,” he declared, noting that agricultural land adjacent to bases can be used to choke food supplies for U.S. forces “especially in a contingency".

This restriction will extend beyond new transactions to include heightened scrutiny of current holdings by entities based in China, Russia, Iran, and other nations of concern.

According to the USDA’s latest figures, Chinese investors currently control about 265,000 acres of U.S. farmland—nearly half of which is tied to Smithfield Foods following its 2013 acquisition by China’s WH Group.

According to Hegseth, the campaign will continue until the Houthis cease their attacks. — Hegseth underscored the Pentagon’s commitment to blocking any future sales of farmland near military installations.

While overall Chinese ownership has already fallen from 384,000 acres in 2021 to today’s levels, the new measures will accelerate that decline through mandatory divestitures or state-level enforcement actions.

In addition to federal orders, Rollins announced that the USDA will work hand-in-hand with governors and state legislatures to harmonize enforcement efforts, drawing upon models like Florida’s 2025 law restricting Chinese land purchases and Indiana’s 2024 statute aimed at protecting farmland near military sites. These collaborations are designed to shore up local oversight and ensure a unified front against any future attempts by adversarial nations to acquire American agricultural assets.

The administration expects to finalize the rule-making process by late 2025, after which the USDA will deploy additional personnel to county offices nationwide to audit land-sale records and enforce compliance.

Rollins concluded, “By acting decisively today, we’re defending America’s farms, our troops’ food security, and the broader resilience of our food systems for generations to come.”