China is buying up US farmland
Undercutting US food supply chains
And potentially creating bioweapons
Welcome to China Uncensored, I’m Chris Chappell.
The Chinese Communist Party and its state-controlled companies are
rapidly buying up farmland around the world. And they’re doing it faster than any other country.
“Between 2011 and 2020, China bought nearly seven million hectares of farmland around the world.
Firms from the U.K. bought nearly two million hectares,
while U.S. and Japanese firms bought less than a million hectares.”
For instance, back in 2013, China bought 5 percent of Ukraine.
It was all farmland, basically the size of Massachusetts. FYI,
that purchase was made by the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps,
a company the US has sanctioned for involvement the genocide of Uyghurs.
Chinese companies are also buying land in Africa.
For instance, in the oh so democratic Democratic Republic of Congo, Chinese palm oil production
is causing massive deforestation in the world’s second largest rainforest.
In fact China is the world’s second largest financier of deforestation linked commodities.
“And in Zimbabwe, they’re producing beef for export back to China, which is neither a
sustainable nor wise use of farmland in a country where people go hungry for want of basic staples.”
A lot of people are going hungry because of the Chinese Communist Party’s unrestrained appetites.
China is hoarding over half of the world’s grain, driving up prices.
And in the US, Chinese acquisition of farmland is causing controversy,
especially after they bought farmland right next to an important American military base.
I’ll tell you more after this quick commercial break. You know, assuming we’re monetized.
Welcome back. I hope.
American farmland is being rapidly bought up by none other than…Bill Gates!
Yes, he owns the most farmland in America.
But the Chinese regime is also buying up American farmland.
Most recently, in an area just 12 miles down the road
from a US Air Force drone base in North Dakota.
“[The base] is believed to be the home of some of the
country’s most sophisticated military drone technology.”
The farmland was bought for $2.6 million dollars by Fufeng
Group , a Chinese company that specializes in flavor enhancers and sugar substitutes.
This has a lot of people freaking out.
According to an Air Force officer, a Chinese firm with close proximity to the base “would present
a costly national security risk causing grave damage to United States’ strategic advantages”.
And there is bipartisan concern. Republican Senator Kevin Cramer said,
“I think we grossly under appreciate how effective they are at collecting information,
collecting data, using it in nefarious ways.”
And Democratic Senator Mark Warner , chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee,
said, “We should be seriously concerned about Chinese investment in locations
close to sensitive sites, such as military bases around the US.”
Now you might be asking, why can Chinese companies buy US farmland near military bases?
Why can Chinese companies buy US farmland at all?
Well let me just first say, as a percentage, China does not own that much US farmland.
According to this report from the USDA
Chinese investors own over 350,000 acres of land in the US.
But that’s less than 1 percent of all foreign owned land.
And foreign own land itself makes up only 2.7% of US agricultural land.
So is there cause for concern? Well, that’s what this recent report by the U.S.-China
Economic and Security Review Commission wanted to find out.
It identified 5 major areas of concern.
One is the proximity to military bases.
I already talked about some of those problems.
Another concern is China might own more US land than we know.
Federal reporting requirements aren’t very stringent. Chinese companies can
create a complex web of ownership through shell companies and partnerships. And the US government
does not have the enforcement mechanisms in place even if violations are found.
Then there’s what the report calls “other land.”
That’s land with “unclassified uses like swamps, marshes, or bare rock. This may include
scenic wetlands or property with water sources running through it”.
So technically not farmland.
In 2013, the USDA reported that other land made up 78% of Chinese purchases.
Some of this land could be converted for agricultural use. And the report mentions,
“The USDA requires foreign buyers to report on any changes to land use,
but the lack of enforcement makes this an area ripe for neglect.”
So again, we really don’t even have a good idea of how much farmland China owns in the US.
The next problem is control over US supply chains.
You know how China makes most of the world’s medical supplies?
That really came back to bite the US when Covid began.
Imagine the power the Chinese Communist Party would have if it controlled the food we eat.
In 2013, a Chinese firm bought Smithfield Foods, the largest US pork producer.
Besides all the pork, that got the Chinese company 146,000
acres of U.S. land scattered across more than six states.
And after the deal, that same Chinese company “bought up a number of processing facilities,
farms, grain elevators, and other U.S. assets that allowed the company to cut out
many American suppliers and service providers”.
Basically, the purchase of Smithfield didn’t just give China pork,
it gave China control over a huge ecosystem of pork-related supply chains.
And do we really want the Chinese Communist Party to be the one bringing home the bacon?
According to Representative Dan Newhouse , “If we begin to cede the responsibility for
our food supply chain to an adversarial foreign nation, we could be forced into
exporting food that is grown within our own borders and meant for our own use.”
Last month he introduced a bill that would block China from buying American Farmland.
It’s similar to a previous bill he introduced last year. That got shot down.
For some reason this is an issue the government just can’t agree on.
Another area of concern is intellectual property theft.
The United States is the world’s largest exporter of genetically
modified crops. It’s a billion dollar industry. And China wants in.
But instead of going through the hassle and expense of researching and developing
their own seeds, China has simply been stealing the technology from the US.
According to the report, “The growing GM crop industry in China would greatly benefit from
access to protected U.S. seed lines that take many years and resources to develop.
Agricultural IP theft could enable Chinese agribusinesses to undercut U.S. competitors
on international seed markets.” But that’s not even the worst of it.
Because the biggest problem is the risk of China weaponizing GMOs.
If China gains an understanding of US seeds, it could “conduct biowarfare by creating some type
of blight that could destroy U.S. crops. For example, biotechnology experts have
recognized that fungal spores “could be used as biological warfare agents to target staple crops.”
That could cause a famine.
And remember, China has been hoarding grain.
Pretty good blackmail if say, China invades Taiwan.
The Chinese regime could threaten US farmland if the military came to Taiwan’s aid.
We could all be having a very hard time putting food on the table.
So what do you think? Leave your comments below.
Once again I’m Chris Chappell, see you next time.