Members of Alabama's federal delegation were pleased to back President Donald Trump, after the administration announced on Tuesday that it was taking aggressive action to prevent the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from acquiring American farmland.
In a joint news conference, U.S. Department of Agriculture chief Brooke Rollins, joined by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem, announced the administration was moving to ban nationwide sales of farmland to Chinese buyers and other “foreign adversaries,” citing threats to national security and food security.
According to USDA data, as of 2023, foreign investors held approximately 45.85 million acres of U.S. agricultural land.
The issue is not new for many in Alabama’s federal delegation, specifically U.S. Sens. Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) and Katie Britt (R-Montgomery) and U.S. Rep. Dale Strong (R-Monrovia), who have spent years sounding the alarm on the potential security threat of allowing the CCP to buy American farmland.
SEE ALSO: Britt, Tuberville introduce bill restricting foreign ownership of American farmland
Tuberville also spoke at the Tuesday conference, accusing the CCP of “dominating” American agriculture, claiming 2.2 million acres of Alabama farmland is foreign-owned.
“China is a threat,” Tuberville said. “They are not just a threat, they are dominating us in almost everything that they do because we’ve sat back, and the politicians have been counting their money instead of doing what’s right and helping this country stay in the front.”
"We've got to be number one. We can't be number two. We've got to fight back. They are coming into our country and buying our farmland," he added.
Strong was also swift to praise the move, boasting that his tenure in Congress had been spent trying to tackle the issue of foreign-owned agricultural land.
“I've been fighting to protect American farmland from foreign adversary control since I came to Congress,” Strong wrote. “It's common sense - China and other nations that wish to do us harm should not be able to purchase our land and jeopardize our food, fiber, and fuel markets.”
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