Tuesday, December 19, 2023

Gipson Addresses Foreign Ownership of Mississippi Farmland

Ag Commish Andrew Gipson issued the following press release. 

Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce Andy Gipson shared the latest United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) report on Foreign Holdings of U.S. Agricultural Land with members of the Mississippi Legislature. The report disclosed a net increase of 184,619 acres of Mississippi agricultural land owned by foreign interests. Acreage increased from 757,816 in 2021 to 942,435 acres in 2022. This report from USDA is a full year more recent than the December 31, 2021, report previously included in the Foreign Purchase of Farmland Study Committee’s findings released to the Legislature in November.

 

“Due to the large net increase of 184,619 acres of Mississippi foreign-held land above the 2021 report, I feel compelled to provide this updated report to the Mississippi Legislature in advance of the 2024 Regular Session,” said Commissioner Gipson. “This represents a net increase of 184,619 acres, or 24.3% above the prior USDA report as of December 31, 2021, of 757,816 agricultural acres held by foreign interests. The 757,816 agricultural acres was previously reported in the Foreign Purchase of Farmland Study Committee’s Final Report dated November 28, 2023. It is unclear whether this reported increase is the result of increased purchases by foreign interests, or increased reporting to USDA of prior acquisitions. This newly released foreign ownership report adds clear urgency to our Study Committee’s recommendation that the Mississippi Legislature act in 2024.”

MDAC is reviewing the updated report as of December 31, 2022, for any other material changes from the 2021 report and will be updating its Foreign Purchase of Farmland website (www.mdac.ms.gov/farmlandand related statements with these developments.

 

The most recent USDA report of Foreign Holdings of U.S. Agricultural Land available at: https://www.fsa.usda.gov/Assets/USDA-FSA-Public/usdafiles/EPAS/PDF/2022_afida_annual_report_12_14_23.pdf

  

33 comments:

Anonymous said...

Other than yapping and waving the numbers around in the air, what does 'The Hat' recommend be done?

He claims to be an attorney but I've yet to hear him come out in favor of outlawing the sale of land to non citizens.

Anonymous said...

I guess I don’t understand the phobia against foreign ownership of farm land. Don’t they have to pay taxes too? Would you prefer have a an Epstein-connected billionaire American pedophile own it all instead?

Anonymous said...

I’m guessing most of Canada’s 12 million acres is CN railroad land.

Anonymous said...

So what if Bill Gates owns 17,000 acres and hopes we poors learn to like bugs for dinner? So what if Soros owns our largest car dealer chain, and funds left wing local officeholders? So what if China or the UK or other foreign nations own a million acres?

Well, it makes a difference if it IS an ally or not. I'm a lot more worried about leftist idiotic politics than allies owning land.

The vast majority of foreign-controlled land in Mississippi is held by friendly nations. The Netherlands holds over 357,000 acres and Germany holds just over 60,000. On the other side of the spectrum is China, which holds just 88 acres of agricultural land.

An effort spearheaded by Rep. Becky Currie to completely ban the purchase of farmland by foreign investors led to the committee’s creation.

Gipson says a more measured approach is needed to avoid unintended consequences.

Wall Street, a wholly owned subsidiary of China, of course LOVES any foreign capital and involvement!!! So do RINOs and Leftists and the urban elite.

What could happen? If Andy passes something, it'll just be to use the Fake Miss. Family Farm myth enrich the .1% of Mississippi even more.

Not to help the middle class or working class. Ever. Big Farma is the same as Big Pharma. Part of a rigged game.

They've sacrificed the actual small family farmer, the factory workers, the middle class, teachers, cops, firemen, soldiers and everyday small business owners to Big Finance and others LONG LONG AGO. And the sporting clays Range Rover set LOVES that.

Andy's just now noticing?? I wonder how many Ag Dept junkets emphasized this land before? Again, for their personal gain at OUR expense.

Anonymous said...

Someone explain how countries across the world are “buying” farmland in Mississippi? This is a bad idea! We really don’t know who is behind this! Wake up Mississippi!

Anonymous said...

Whose idea is this? We should not be selling our land to foreign countries! Whose idea was this?

Anonymous said...

Many issues at play here which “go without saying”; not the least of which is worldwide money printing.

That capital has to go to somewhere and few things are ultimately more long term desirable than farmland.

Anonymous said...

Are there some Chinese language classes in the area?

Anonymous said...

Sinophobia is not good for this country. We call the enemies of humanity our “greatest allies” and make enemies of a nation who wants to recreate the status and prestige that we had in the 1950s and 1960s before the enemies of humanity set us on a path of moral decay and spiritual suicide.

Anonymous said...

Good info there
Do we know his plan ? What will he ask MS Legislators to do?

Anonymous said...

7:15 and 8:51 it's not AG's place to tell the Legislature what to do. He's presenting them with facts that they will either ignore, or act upon. The issue seems rather clear, doesn't it?

Anonymous said...

I got it: AG4AGN24

Anonymous said...

More scare tactics so we will have to rely on government. Who owns more land outside their borders than anybody? The USA 🇺🇸of course. We ban them, they ban us. We confiscate theirs, they confiscate ours. Really a stupid discussion to whip up the fears of ignorant people.

Anonymous said...

We have sold this country and our souls to the devil. It is only a matter of time before we ALL have nothing or are dead.

Anonymous said...

@7:18 really? you don't get it? when another country owns the land in this country we technically become their country. It is only a matter of time people.... you are going to wake up one day and your debit cards aren't going to work and all hell is going to break loose.

Anonymous said...

@12/19, 7:18pm
You don't want foreigners owning Mississippi farmland for the same reason you don't want out-of-state landlords: they don't have the same incentive to improve the land/property. They care a lot less about erosion, overuse of pesticides and herbicides, soil depletion, etc.

Also, Epstein has zero to do with this. That's "whataboutism" at its worst.

Anonymous said...

If you want to know about Chinese agricultural practices, take a look at what has happened to Chinese farmland in the last 60 years. They have entire orchards that must be painstakingly hand pollinated because their farming practices killed off all the pollinators. Dig around a bit online and see how they absolutely ruined their own farmland… then you’ll understand why most of us don’t want any Chinese ownership of Mississippi farmland.

Anonymous said...

7:18 - you darn right I had rather have a pedophile own the land rather than a foreign country. The pedophile can be arrested and prosecuted. And if you think that all this land is being purchased by private foreign investors, you're wrong. Their names may be on the deed, but in reality they are pawns for their governments.

Anonymous said...

I met a South African farmer in the Delta. He worked soil here in the off season. Good dude.

Anonymous said...

So what if foreign governments own US soil, right? They just want a little bit.

So what if we let a few million illegals into the country? They just want jobs.

So what if we have a handful of anti-Americans in congress? A few can't be harmful.

So what if all the failing major cities are run by liberal socialists? We can just ignore those places.

So what if we are required to embrace abhorrent practices and behaviors? They just want to be left alone.

So what if we have a few liberal professors one day and thousands the next year? Our kids are smart enough to ignore communist teachings.

My guess is, the 'so what' will be our eventual slide into Gomorrah. But Hell! So what?

Anonymous said...

Some perspective: that’s a 0.6% increase (from 2.4% to 3.0% of Mississippi land). Nothing to worry about here.

Plus I really like the delicious Smithfield products the Chinese sell me. Hint: they’re pretty good at capitalism. They’ll make money on the land, be taxed and subjugated just like the rest of us. And they can’t take the land back home!!!! Again, nothing to worry about here.

Anonymous said...

@9:05,
But they can take the land back home, in a sense. Farming done wrong depletes the land - making it useless for agricultural going forward without expensive inputs. All you have to do is look at farmland in China to understand that we don't want Chinese interests managing American farmland.

Anonymous said...

@7:08
You must be ignorant of the Epstein-connected billionaire who is buying up farmland.
(hint: his wife Melinda divorced him when she confirmed how much he liked flying to the Bahamas to enjoy underage Ukrainian girls)

Anonymous said...

Thanks for letting us know how many acres pf ;and foreign countries own. Now how about telling us how many of our politicians foreign countries own.

Paul Messer said...

British-owned Delta & Pine Land Company, based in Scott, Mississippi, was the largest cotton plantation in the world in the first half of the 20th century. They are now owned by Bayer, a German company, and their focus is on research and producing cotton and soybean seed. Not all foreign investment is to be feared.

Anonymous said...

Lol at all of you Sinophobic hayseeds.
I’ve been to China a dozen times in the last 10 years.
Yes China has problems but ours are far worse (They have no equivalent of Jackson/Baltimore/Detroit/St.Louis)
Everywhere in China is better than anywhere in Mississippi.
There simply is not enough land in China to feed nearly 2 billion people.

Anonymous said...

@12:18 The Chinese Communist Party thanks you for your comment. Dont let the fat capitalist know the truth about us.

Anonymous said...

"Sinophobic hayseeds," said no Mississippian ever.

Tell us, 12:18, how much does the Chinese Communist Party pay per post? Or are do they use slave labor, perhaps?

Anonymous said...

If we didn't spend so much money buying Chinese products, they would not have the money to buy up the property in the US. Buy US made products only.

Anonymous said...

@4:48
That is literally impossible for anyone who doesn’t have a federal budget. The value of the dollar has been robbed by the policy of fractional-reserve banking. The American dream is over for the average American. And the smart boomers are moving to cheap places like Latin America and SE Asia where the American Peso is worth a little bit more than the Local Peso.

Anonymous said...

I personally would not mind that one of our greatest allies buy up, say, several hundred square miles of Mississippi and then decamp into said square miles their deplorables, their tired, their poor, their huddled masses yearning to breathe free and clean air not filled with concrete dust. Diversity, after all, is America’s greatest superpower. It’s win-win-win.

Anonymous said...

Y’all going to scare away the few people who want to come to Missippi!

Anonymous said...

Most of the “Foreign Owned” land is owned by companies, not nations. Any Chinese owned land is suspect due to the involvement of their government. Otherwise, for example, Holland owns no land here. People from Holland do. That’s free enterprise which most Americans support. Many Americans own property in Holland and Great Britain and Germany and so on. Further, it seems people are conflating ownership of land with “Taking Over” our state. The citizens of this state are the voters and voters control our government. Holland doesn’t get a vote even if they own the whole county.


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