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THE ASTORIAN • THuRSdAy, SEpTEmbER 9, 2021
OPINION
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
publisher
DERRICK DePLEDGE
Editor
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OUR VIEW
Protect our farmland
F
or decades, there have been
concerns that foreign inves-
tors are buying up farmland
in the United States.
That this is a hot-button issue for
American producers and a strate-
gic policy concern for politicians
is understandable. Wealthy foreign
buyers make it harder for domestic
producers to compete for available
farmland. Well-heeled investors of
all types always push out smaller
potential buyers. The thought of
some foreign actor taking con-
trol of the domestic food supply is
frightening.
There’s no doubt that foreign
investors are interested in snap-
ping up American farmland. We are
more concerned with what foreign
investors are doing with the farm-
land they buy than we are that they
are buying it in the first place.
Reporting by the Capital Press
of U.S. Department of Agriculture
data shows that in the 40 years or
so that records have been kept, for-
eign investors have bought more
than 35 million acres of U.S. farm-
land worth $62 billion. In all, that’s
an area larger than the state of New
York.
According to USDA staff, out-
side investments are on the rise.
Filings show foreign holdings of
American farmland increased by
141% between 2004 and 2019.
In 1978, Congress passed the
Sierra Dawn McClain/Capital Press
Germany has invested heavily in U.S. cropland for the production of hops.
Agricultural Foreign Investment
Disclosure Act, which required
foreign buyers to report their
transactions.
Foreign buyers have purchased
1.2 million acres of Oregon farm-
land — roughly 7.5% of the state’s
farm acreage, according to the
2017 U.S. Census of Agriculture.
The total is 1.5 million acres in
Washington state, and just 122,598
acres in Idaho.
The takeover of American farm
production by foreigners is far
from imminent. Their purchases in
the last 40 years are equal to 3.9%
of the farmland now in production.
Critics are convinced that the
reported numbers are low, and
contend without proof that much
more land is being bought than is
being reported. They concede that
it would be impossible to quan-
tify without combing through land
records in 3,000 county court-
houses across the country.
It is certain that the USDA’s
numbers are misleading. Some of
the land in question has been sold
by one foreign buyer to another,
while others have divested alto-
gether. Tracking those transactions
through USDA data is difficult.
Also, not all foreign investors who
have reported a purchase have a
controlling interest in the land.
We agree that foreign purchases
should be monitored. It would
be a dangerous problem if for-
eign interests gain control of U.S.
agriculture.
To be clear, we would prefer that
U.S. farmland stay in the hands, or
at least the control, of U.S. entities.
But, the more pressing concern is
keeping farmland productive.
Foreign investors are joining
domestic companies that are inter-
ested in building alternative energy
facilities or other real estate devel-
opments on farmland.
Turning cropland into wind-
farms, shopping malls and subdivi-
sions is a greater danger to agricul-
ture, and in turn the country, than a
French company buying vineyards
here to make wine.
Once farmland is built over, it’s
gone for good. No farmer, foreign
or domestic, will ever farm it again.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Convince people
I
see we are back to calling people “mur-
derers.” Perhaps the Portland writer (The
Astorian, Aug. 28) should temper his vitriol.
The people who he calls “dupes” and
“victims” are actually those who believe the
government’s political correctness. There
are people legitimately questioning the gov-
ernment about their heavy-handedness and
the effectiveness of their edicts.
The coronavirus is still running amok. It
does not respect political correctness.
I know of no one who believes the
COVID is a hoax. The questions about the
government’s handling of the pandemic are
legitimate. Why did we destroy so many
businesses and lives when there is no statis-
tical evidence that their efforts — other than
the vaccines — have had any effect on the
infection rates?
That being said, there is nothing stop-
ping anyone from getting the vaccina-
tion or masking or avoiding human con-
tact. Convince people, show us proof. Don’t
threaten, punish or call them names.
Finally, there is a word for those who
would enforce political laws enacted with-
out a vote of the people or their representa-
tives, how about “fascists?”
ROBERT LIDDYCOAT
Seaside
Sticks and stones
rom the beginning of this nation’s quest
to become the beacon of hope for the
world, approximately 30% of our friends
and family could be classified as sedition-
ists. Some were loyal to the king in the Rev-
olutionary War. We have even had a broth-
er-against-brother war over slavery. Stupid
is, as stupid does.
How is our current predicament any
different? Most American citizens have
at least one friend, if not a family mem-
ber, who is caught up in the conspiracy of
the Republican fear machine. I have a very
smart daughter who has not spoken to me
in years, mostly due to our differences in
political beliefs. Why? This one-of-a-kind
nation was spawned to allow differences.
Millions of people from around the
world have been killed, fighting for what
way too many of Americans take for
granted: The freedom to speak and think
differently than your neighbor, without con-
sequences. Walk any street today, and have
the humanity to say “good morning” to
someone, and they ask what you mean by
that statement.
A lot of Americans need to visit a kin-
dergarten teacher. That is when I learned
a simple rhyme: Sticks and stones may
break my bones, but words will never hurt
me. And, in sports, there’s a saying of “no
F
LETTERS WELCOME
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blood, no foul.” But as a society, we want
to tar and feather anyone who flies a differ-
ent flag.
Our only true concern should be that Old
Glory flies on top!
TROY HASKELL
Astoria
which would have been squandered any-
way on things like roads, bridges and low-
cost housing.
Besides, Afghanistan was nothing like
Vietnam; Vietnam was a jungle.
DALE FLOWERS
Warrenton
Short end of the stick
Dismaying
W
I
ell, it looks like President Joe Biden
got caught holding the short end of
the stick — a stick that was 20 years in the
making.
We’ve managed to make a mess out of
a country that was already a mess, and we
did it for a mere $2 trillion. What’s $2 tril-
lion anyway? It works out to $2 billion
for each state for every year for 20 years,
t was dismaying to read that a Clatsop
County commissioner appealed to the
governor to lift COVID vaccine mandates
(The Astorian, Aug. 28) because “Orego-
nians will be required to choose between
the vaccine and their personal freedom.”
Many do not understand that this is
more than a local health issue or a public
health emergency — we are at war with
an unseen deadly enemy, deadlier than any
we have ever faced.
In war, personal freedoms are sacri-
ficed to defeat the enemy. The federal gov-
ernment instituted conscription, which
impinged to vastly greater degrees on per-
sonal freedoms than simply requiring a
vaccine. Soldiers died in battle.
American combat deaths in the six
wars with conscription totaled more than
648,000. U.S. COVID deaths have already
exceeded 648,000.
To the unvaccinated, did your ances-
tors fail to heed their country’s call and
sacrifice their personal freedoms during
these wars? Probably not, yet your refusal
to be vaccinated is directly leading to the
deaths of your fellow Americans. In the
last two months, 95% of hospitalizations
and deaths were among unvaccinated peo-
ple. Many could have been prevented.
Beds in Oregon hospitals would have been
available to patients who subsequently
died because beds, occupied mostly by the
unvaccinated, were not available.
We are at war. Should the decision to
be vaccinated be whether you think “it’s a
good choice for you or not,” as the com-
missioner said? There is much more at
stake than personal freedom.
WILL CAPLINGER
Taipei, Taiwan