Foreign developers – including Chinese, Russian, Iranian and Venezuelans – now own at least 40M acres of US land near military bases from coast-to-coast: Government admits it does NOT know full extent of land grab

At least 40 million acres of US farmland, pastures and forests are owned by foreign investors, which officials warn ‘may have consequences for national security.’

A new watchdog report found that foreign ownership of US land – including buyers from adversarial nations like China, Russia and Iran – has increased by 40 percent since 2016, with some plots near sensitive military facilities.

As well as espionage concerns, there is growing alarm about the integrity of America’s food supply chains.

But the estimates could be the tip of the iceberg because the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which did the report, told DailyMail.com that US officials are not ‘reliably’ tracking data on land owners.

The new Congressional analysis has caused fury among Democrats and Republicans, who demanded the Biden Administration clamp down on purchases ‘from adversaries’ to shore up America’s defenses.

Foreign countries own at least 40 million acres of US farmland, pastures and forests, which officials claimed ‘may have consequences for national security.’ However, a watchdog said the government is not ‘reliably’ tracking data on land owners. Pictured is only farmland ownership

Democratic Senator Jon Tester said: ‘While we learn more about the specifics around this unfolding situation, it highlights the need for Congress to do more to protect American agricultural security and prevent our foreign adversaries from controlling our country’s food supply while also gaining access to land near sensitive military sites.’

Republican Representative Dan Newhouse also shared his outrage after GAO released its findings.

‘This report confirms one of our worst fears: that not only is the e United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) unable to answer the question of who owns what land and where, but that there is no plan by the department to internally reverse this dangerous flaw that affects our supply chain and economy,’ Newhouse said.

‘Food security is national security, and we cannot allow foreign adversaries to influence our food supply while we stick our heads in the sand.’

Chinese firms own 346,915 acres of American agricultural land as of December 2022

The GAO’s findings revealed the USDA collects the required data on paper forms and noted the agency ‘does not share timely data on foreign investments in agricultural land collected under the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978, as amended (AFIDA).’

AFIDA requires foreign persons acquiring or transferring agricultural land to report information about the transaction to USDA.

‘USDA also does not sufficiently verify and conduct quality reviews to track the accuracy and completeness of its collected data,’ the report reads.

‘Without improving its internal processes, USDA cannot report reliable information to Congress or the public about where and how much U.S. agricultural land is held by foreign persons.’

While 40 million acres only makes up a small amount of the 1.3 billion acres of private land in the US, the GAO report warned the data was sparse and unreliable.

For example, the GAO pointed out that Chinese billionaire Chen Tianqiao’s $85 million purchase of Oregon timberland is missing from government records.

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