Mapping and Contextualizing Foreign Ownership and Leasing of U.S. Farmland

Foreign ownership of U.S. farmland has recently attracted growing interest from the public as well as the federal and state policy makers. Using all reported AFIDA transactions, this article provides a comprehensive analysis on the structure of foreign land ownership in the United States. We find that (1) long-term leasing is the main driver of the increasing foreign interests of U.S. farmland in the past 20 years; (2) a considerable number of foreign transactions are related to wind and solar energy development, especially for entities holding long-term leases; and (3) “adversary” countries like China hold only 1% of all the foreign-owned agricultural land.