A committee appointed by the Mississippi Legislature has determined that foreign ownership of agricultural land in the state is illegal but existing law lacks a workable means to enforce the prohibition.
“We already have a law. Unfortunately nobody has ever known exactly what it meant or how to enforce it,” said Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson.
Gipson has headed the nine-member study committee, which also includes retired Staplcotn CEO Meredith Allen of Greenwood.
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On Thursday at a meeting in Jackson, that committee unanimously adopted a 10-page, mostly completed report of its findings and recommendations to the Legislature.
“Continued unrestricted foreign ownership of Mississippi’s agricultural land and water rights by foreign adversaries ... presents a serious concern to Mississippi and to national security, including food security,” the report says.
It defines those “foreign adversaries” as six countries, as identified by the U.S. government — China, Russia, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela and Iran.
The issue of foreign ownership of agricultural land has exploded nationally in the past year, mostly over concerns about Chinese ownership of American assets. Prior to this year, Mississippi and 13 other states already had laws prohibiting or restricting foreign ownership and investments in agricultural land. In 2023, according to The National Agriculture Law Center at the University of Arkansas, 35 states looked at either enacting such bans for the first time or clarifying the ones on their books. Ten of these states, mostly in the South, enacted new laws, and two others amended existing ones. Arkansas last month became the first known state to enforce such bans, ordering the subsidiary of a Chinese-owned company to divest itself of 160 acres of farmland within two years.
As of 2021, the latest year reported by the federal government, nearly 758,000 acres of agricultural land in Mississippi, the majority of it timberland, is owned by foreign investors. Although that’s less than 3% of all agricultural land in the state, the amount of foreign-owned acreage has grown by more than 20% since 2012.
In Leflore County, foreign interests own more than 17,000 acres. In Carroll County, it’s close to 19,000 acres.
The vast majority of the foreign owners of Mississippi agricultural land are from U.S. allies. The Dutch alone account for almost half of the foreign-owned acreage.
Although the study committee did not recommend any specific legislation, it urged the Legislature to act to address the concerns and seek the advice of legal experts at The National Agricultural Law Center.
“At a bare minimum,” the report reads, “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 2024 legislative session convenes in January.
Bubba Pettit, a tree farmer and retired real estate lawyer from Kosciusko, has been a leading crusader for Mississippi to crack down on foreign ownership of agricultural land. In his home county of Attala, foreign interests own nearly 45,000 acres. He said he was “elated” that the committee read state law dating back more than a century the same way that he did.
“The foreign-owned land is not going to be owned by the foreigners — I don’t know if it’s going to take a year or two or three or four or whatever it’s going to take — but it’s not going to be owned by the foreigners anymore,” Pettit said. “And there shouldn’t be any more foreign acquisitions.”
He said he expects the Legislature to direct either the attorney general, the district attorneys or a combination of both to enforce the ban, and to create a better system to fully identify land ownership.
“You are going to know who owns every tract of land in your county,” Pettit said.
- Contact Tim Kalich at 662-581-7243 or tkalich@gwcommonwealth.com.
