Ernst Protects U.S. Farmland, Calls for Modernization for Farmers

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, is working to modernize outdated U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) systems that burden many farmers and leave farmland vulnerable to foreign adversaries.

During the hearing, Ernst secured a commitment from Richard Fordyce, nominee for Undersecretary of Agriculture for Farm Production and Conservation, to update and digitize the process for producers when working with their local USDA offices. She also pointed out her oversight efforts and ongoing work to overhaul the outdated Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (AFIDA) reporting system to better protect American farmland from malign foreign actors.

Watch her full line of questioning here.

“That same modernization is needed when it comes to how USDA tracks and monitors foreign land in the United States,” said Ernst.“The Agriculture Foreign Investment Disclosure Act – AFIDA – was signed into law in 1978, and it has been barely touched since then. Even today, foreign land purchases are reported on paper and staff must manually reenter each submission, a process that’s inefficient and prone to errors, and I’ve seen this firsthand…The recent commitments from Secretary Rollins to modernize the AFIDA reporting process is welcome news. It’s a much-needed step to protect our farmland from adversaries.”

Background:

Ernst understands that food security is national security. Her bipartisan FARMLAND Act will overhaul the current outdated system that has allowed China’s malign influence to threaten American security.

Ernst confronted the Biden USDA about its lack of oversight of foreign involvement in American agricultural land and questioned officials to ensure they make updates to the AFIDA reporting process a priority.

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