How Mississippi will keep China from land ownership

Family farms in the Delta and throughout Mississippi have been selling out to corporate entities for more than two decades.

Despite laws against foreign ownership of Mississippi land, more and more foreign entities are buying and owning state farm and timber land.

In 2021, according to a recent 363-page report by the Mississippi Department of Agriculture, 757,816 agricultural acres were held by foreign interests in Mississippi. That is an increase from 600,456 acres in 2011. Nationally, as of December 2021, 40,031,308 acres of all private agricultural land in the U.S. had foreign ownership. That was an increase of 2.4 million acres from Dec. 31, 2020, and an increase of 14.3 million acres since 2011.

"We have provisions in the Mississippi law that are meant to limit, restrict or prevent the holding of land by quote non-resident aliens as stated by section 84 of the Mississippi constitution," Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce Andy Gipson told the Clarion Ledger this week. "When you look at foreign ownership, that's about 2.6% all of the land ownership in the State of Mississippi. Something is not working. Something is not being enforced."

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Gipson said what the committee that put together the study found is a lack of a workable enforcement mechanism.

Gipson would like to see Mississippi's Legislature follow the lead of Arkansas, which has been dealing with many of the same issues.

In October, the Arkansas Legislature put together a set of land restrictions and will enforce foreign-ownership. On Oct. 17, Arkansas ordered a China-owned company to drop farmland in northeast Arkansas.

Northrup King Seed Co., a subsidiary of Syngenta owned by Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-controlled ChemChina, was directed to divest of 160 acres of Craighead County farmland within two years. ChemChina is listed by the Department of Defense as a Chinese military company carrying threat potential to the U.S.

Gipson said the same company owns land in Mississippi. In the case of forest land, most of the foreign ownership comes from the Netherlands, he said.

"This is a huge deal. That really got the attention of the committee," Gipson said. "No one has ever really looked at this since the constitution was put in place. I think what we discovered was that a law is no good if it has no enforcement. That's the bottom line."

He said most the states, like Arkansas, are focusing their immediate efforts on China and companies like Northrup King Seed.

"The biggest concern is our foreign adversaries, defined by the United States," Gipson said. "Our Legislature is going to want to tighten that up. They are going to want to especially focus on foreign adversaries. That includes China. That includes Russia and eight or nine other countries that are known to be enemies of the United States. I think the legislature will have to consider further than that to other non-resident alien foreign interests, such as the Netherlands."

Other than in Arkansas, Florida law bans Chinese citizens from property ownership altogether. Montana banned farmland sales near military areas to six countries. Other southern states like Alabama, Louisiana and Texas are also looking at legislation that would regulate foreign land ownership.

The committee in Mississippi said the continued unrestricted foreign ownership of Mississippi’s agricultural land and water rights especially by foreign adversaries presents a serious concern to Mississippi and to national security, including food security.

"The Legislature should act to address these concerns. At a bare minimum, the Legislature should pass an enforcement mechanism with any appropriate reporting requirements and legal enforcement procedures, along with any exemptions as may be necessary or appropriate tailored to Mississippi needs and based on the experiences of other States," The report states. "In order to accomplish this, the Study Committee highly recommends thatthe Legislature review and receive guidance from legal experts within the National Agricultural Law Center."

Gipson said action by the Mississippi Legislature would prevent the loophole that has been in place.

"It is so easy to form an LLC (Limited Liability Corporation). You can have someone from Mississippi with the name to that. But behind the veil, it is actually controlled by a foreign entity. That's how this has happened," Gipson said. "That's the loophole that's got to be addressed by the Legislature. Our No. 1 recommendation to the Legislature is to create an enforceable mechanism that is workable."

He said he understands it may not be feasible to address every preexisting transaction for foreign entities that own Mississippi land.

"I will say, though, it is certainly feasible and necessary that the Legislature act now moving forward to make certain that the enemies of America will not control this nation's of this state's food, fiber and shelter production."

Ross Reily can be reached by email at rreily@gannett.com or at 601-573-2952. You can follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter @GreenOkra1.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: MS wants to stop foreign land ownership