B4
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2021
Foreign investors are buying Western farmland
Over 35 million acres
in recent decades
By SIERRA DAWN McCLAIN
Capital Press
In recent decades, foreign investors have
bought more than 35 million acres of U.S.
farmland worth $62 billion — about 2.7%
of all privately held land nationwide, an area
larger than New York state.
And foreign investors continue to buy,
according to U.S. Department of Agriculture .
Some American farmers view foreign
investment as benefi cial, expanding mar-
kets and access to capital. Others view it as a
threat to national security, food system resil-
iency and land access.
The issue surfaced as a hot topic in Con-
gress this summer after U.S. Rep. Dan New-
house, a Washington state Republican ,
proposed legislation to ban the Chinese gov-
ernment from buying U.S. farmland.
“Allowing this practice to continue would
lead to the creation of a Chinese-owned agri-
cultural monopoly and pose an immediate
threat to U.S. national security and food secu-
rity,” Newhouse said.
The legislation is moving through
Congress.
Newhouse is right that China is a big
player. According to 2018 USDA data, Chi-
nese investment in the agricultural sector has
grown tenfold in a decade.
But most of China’s investments have
been in the meat sector and the Midwest.
Investment often takes a diff erent shape in the
West. In four Western farm states — Califor-
nia, Oregon, Washington and Idaho — China
doesn’t even make it onto the list of top 10
investors.
So, who is buying farmland in the West,
and what are their intentions?
Big players in the West are from Canada,
Europe and Japan. Top investments include
timber, tree fruit, winegrapes, manufacturing
and processing, real estate development and
renewable energy.
Sierra Dawn McClain/Capital Press
A historic barn in Wyoming.
‘WHILE FOREIGN INVESTMENT HAS CAUSED
SOME CONCERN WITHIN THE OREGON WINE
COMMUNITY, OVERALL, IT HAS BEEN VIEWED AS A
POSITIVE. OUR WINES ARE NOW RECOGNIZED AS
BEING WORLD-CLASS.’
Sarah Murdoch | spokeswoman for Oregon Wine Board
Tracking buyers
To uncover which countries are investing
in American soil and why, the Capital Press
requested a database of public records from
USDA through the Freedom of Information
Act.
The database is called the Agricultural
Foreign Investment Disclosure Act, cre-
ated in response to a law Congress passed
in 1978 requiring foreign buyers to report
transactions.
The database covers the years 1900
through 2019, although records are patchy
prior to 1978. USDA is still compiling the
2020 list, said Amanda Heitkamp, a USDA
spokeswoman.
The database tracks investments in crop-
land, pastureland, forestland and other
farmland.
According to USDA staff , outside invest-
ments are on the rise. Filings show foreign
holdings of American farmland increased by
141% between 2004 and 2019.
This, experts say, is a conservative esti-
mate. That’s because, although the 1978 law
required foreigners to report land purchases,
the requirement is not enforced.
Joe Maxwell, the president and CEO of
Family Farm Action, a group that advocates
on behalf of small, family farmers against
corporate behemoths, said he believes the
database, though useful, “woefully underre-
ports” the number of foreign investments.
“It’s just the tip of the iceberg,” he said.
“We believe what’s being reported is just a
thimbleful of what’s actually out there.”
The only way to accurately trace all for-
eign holdings, land use experts say, would be
to piece together records from every county
assessor’s offi ce in the nation — a mammoth
project.
“It’s just really diffi cult to track,” said
Jim Johnson, a land use and water planning
coordinator at the Oregon Department of
Agriculture.
Changing hands
Farmland, once in someone’s hands,
doesn’t always stay there.
Although USDA reports foreigners hold
an interest in about 35 million acres, that’s
assuming every foreigner who ever bought
farmland held onto it. And that’s just not the
case.
The database, cross-referenced with pub-
lic business fi lings and sales records, reveals
that many foreign investors have sold farm-
land they once held. Dozens of foreign own-
ers have dissolved businesses, sold land to
domestic or international buyers, gone bank-
rupt or experienced foreclosure.
Foreign investment comes in many fl a-
vors: from individuals, corporations, insti-
tutions, associations, estates, trusts and
partnerships.
Tracking names recorded in USDA’s data-
base, the Capital Press called and emailed
dozens of foreign buyers across the West,
revealing a tapestry of people and stories.
Some buyers have big names, like the
Haub Brothers Enterprise Trust, which is
associated with Erivan Haub, a German gro-
cery store magnate whose trust bought thou-
sands of acres of Washington state farmland.
Other buyers have straddled continents,
like a young British farmer running a bio-
gas business and operating farm properties in
both Oregon and the United Kingdom.
Still others have been immigrants headed
West to build a dream, like a Dutch fl ower
grower who, with his wife and baby in tow,
took out loans to build a bulb business.
Foreign buyers have purchased 1.2 million
acres of Oregon farmland — roughly 7.5%
of the state’s farm acreage, according to the
2017 U.S. Census of Agriculture.
Top investors are from Canada, Lux-
embourg, Sweden, Portugal and the U.K.
Investors from the fi rst three countries have
invested mainly in timber, investors from the
latter two in wind and solar power.
Refl ecting microclimates and the character
of the land, investments vary from county to
county. Gilliam and Umatilla counties, where
foreigners have bought the largest number of
parcels, have mainly seen renewable energy
developments. Polk County has seen timber
and wine investments.
Whether foreign investment is good or
bad is a matter of disagreement among Ore-
gon farmers.
Solar power on farmland is especially con-
troversial, and groups including the Oregon
Farm Bureau and 1 000 Friends of Oregon
have raised alarms.
“We’re constantly fi ghting the miscon-
ception that agricultural land is vacant land.
It’s not,” Kathryn Jernstedt, the president of
Friends of Yamhill County, told the Capital
Press this summer.
Farmers view other investments more
favorably.
Before the 1970s, Oregon’s wine indus-
try was virtually nonexistent. But as pioneers
started making high-quality wine, it grabbed
the attention of international investors.
The fi rst French family to buy an Ore-
gon vineyard was the Drouhin family, which
has been making wine since 1880 in the Bur-
gundy region of France.
After visiting Oregon, Robert Drouhin and
his daughter, Veronique, decided to buy land
in 1987.
“The Oregon wine community was so
welcoming to the family,” said David Mill-
man, the company’s CEO and president.
“This wonderful, respected family investing
in Oregon of all places was this huge, huge
boost — a sort of validation.”
Today, more than a dozen European com-
panies own Oregon vineyards.
Critics, including Maxwell, of Family
Farm Action, said there should be a distinction
between control and investment. Investment
is good, he said — a foreign entity investing
dollars and receiving a percentage of profi ts.
But Maxwell said foreigners should not hold
land or management positions.
Most leaders in Oregon’s wine industry
disagree.
“While foreign investment has caused
some concern within the Oregon wine com-
munity, overall, it has been viewed as a pos-
itive,” said Sarah Murdoch, a spokeswoman
for Oregon Wine Board. “Our wines are now
recognized as being world-class.”
“These newcomers,” she said, treat Ore-
gon growers with respect and have brought
“new energy, new ideas and greater national
and international marketing capacity.”
Oregon’s L egislature has made no laws
restricting foreign ownership of private
farmland.
The future
Foreign investment in the West takes a dif-
ferent shape than in the Midwest.
China’s investment strategy in the Mid-
west and the East is clear, said Maxwell, of
Family Farm Action. A Chinese company,
WH Group, fi rst purchased meat processing
infrastructure such as Smithfi eld Foods, the
world’s largest pork producer. Then it bought
cropland — Midwestern wheat, corn and
soybean acres — to feed those hogs.
In the West, diff erent themes emerge,
including an interest in renewable energy,
high-value perennial crops, real estate — and
more recently, land purchased for its water
rights.
So, what’s next? Though farmers in the
West diff er in their opinions on whether for-
eign investment is bad, good or a mix, most
with whom the Capital Press spoke said
something should be done.
Watch Congress, Maxwell said, where
debates about China have opened the much
broader conversation about foreign invest-
ment as a whole.
Change, he said, may be on the way.
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