By Jessica Domel
Multimedia Reporter
The Trump administration unveiled its plan to address foreign ownership of U.S. farmland and ensure American agriculture remains a key element of national security efforts.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Farm Security Action Plan, released July 8, outlines plans to identify potential threats to U.S. agriculture and food supply systems, refocus domestic investment and strengthen USDA’s ability to respond to threats.
“We feed the world. We lead the world. And we’ll never let foreign adversaries control our land, our labs or our livelihoods,” U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said. “This action plan puts America’s farmers, families and future first—exactly where they belong.”
According to USDA, recent events highlight the need for the plan.
The agency cited foreign nationals, including one member of the Chinese Communist Party, who were charged by the Department of Justice last month with smuggling a noxious fungus into the United States.
USDA noted the fungus is a potential agroterrorism weapon responsible for billions in global crop losses.
To protect the U.S. from threats such as that, USDA’s plan includes action in seven areas.
One: Secure and Protect American Farmland
“The first of the seven is securing and protecting American farmland ownership, actively engaging at every level of government to take swift legislative and executive action to ban the purchase of American farmland by foreign adversaries,” Rollins said.
According to the plan, USDA will implement reforms to the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (AFIDA) by creating an online filing system for enhanced AFIDA reports that will include geospatial information and the reason for the land purchase.
“Gone are the days of foreign adversaries taking advantage of our farmland, farmers and programs paid for by American taxpayers. The National Farm Security Action Plan was a first step by USDA to defend the homeland. Our work is far from done. We will continue to restore farm security and expose the extent to which our adversaries have targeted American agriculture,” Rollins said.
AFIDA requires foreign investors who acquire, transfer or hold an interest in U.S. agricultural land to report it and transactions to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.
As part of the goal of securing and protecting American farmland, USDA plans to work with state and Congressional officials, where applicable, to take legislative or executive action to end direct or indirect purchases of farmland by nationals of countries or concern or foreign adversaries.
The department has launched a new online portal that will allow farmers, ranchers and others to report possibly false AFIDA reports, failed AFIDA reporting and other AFIDA compliance issues.
Those reports may be made anonymously, per the plan.
The portal will also accept claims of adversarial foreign influence on federal, state and local policymakers regarding the purchase of farmland and other facets of the agricultural supply chain.
This week, USDA also released a Foreign Farm Land Purchases map that is searchable by country.
Under the plan, the secretary of agriculture will be added to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).
“They investigate and consider and approve or disapprove any U.S. business merging with or being acquired by foreign investors,” Sam Kieffer, vice president of public policy for the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), said. “So, it only makes sense that the secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture also serves in that capacity. This is a positive step toward managing who contributes to our food supply chain.”
Kieffer said it’s important to keep this issue in perspective, as about only 3% of all privately held U.S. agricultural land is foreign-owned.
“We understand and appreciate the need to protect the sensitive aspects of the American food system,” Kieffer said. “It’s important to remember that food security is indeed national security, and we want to ensure that any steps by USDA or by the Trump administration protect American agriculture while also preserving the freedom and abilities of farmers to develop, to invest and to sell their land, depending on their unique circumstances.”
Two: Enhance Agricultural Supply Chain Resilience
The second area of the plan deals with relying on other countries for agricultural inputs that USDA said can threaten domestic security and independence.
“By analyzing and identifying supply chain gaps and other security vulnerabilities, USDA can help refocus domestic investment into key manufacturing sectors and identify nonadversarial partners to work with when domestic production is not available,” the plan said. “Importation of commodities and other agricultural products could introduce dangerous pathogens harmful to animal or human health and devastate U.S. industry if they neglect or disregard USDA safety and import requirements.”
USDA plans to create a list of agricultural inputs and materials to identify where agriculture may have significant risks and security vulnerabilities in the supply chain.
The department plans to conduct regular assessments, including cross-sector simulation and wartime scenario planning exercises related to agriculture to ensure USDA is well-equipped to respond if an emergency arises.
Under this part of the plan, USDA will also review and modernize import restrictions to prevent the spread of biochemicals and biological agents.
Three: Nutrition Safety Net Must be Protected from Fraud, Abuse and Foreign Adversaries
The third area the plan addresses is the 16 nutrition programs administered by USDA.
“Programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) should be preserved for truly needy individuals legally in the United States, safeguarding them from fraud, abuse and foreign adversaries while respecting the generosity of the American taxpayer,” the plan said.
Under the plan, USDA will work to ensure all programs comply with laws and regulations. USDA will implement strengthened enforcement measures and improve the integrity of the application process.
The department will also ensure no funding from USDA nutrition programs is being used to fund illegal activities.
“Vulnerabilities in the SNAP payment system are a persistent target of transnational criminals and gangs. Law enforcement has identified a troubling trend of transnational criminal organizations (TCO) stealing from the poor and the American taxpayer by such means as cloning point of sale devices and card skimming. The proceeds often are used by the TCOs to fund their criminal activity,” the plan said.
USDA will also disqualify retailers who are complicit in SNAP fraud.
Four: Enhance Research Security
The fourth area of the plan pertains to securing U.S. agricultural research from foreign influence, intellectual property theft, forced transfers of technology and agroterrorism.
“Agricultural research, development and innovation are the cornerstones of U.S. dominance in the global agricultural sector. This research enterprise reaches far beyond traditional applications of agricultural production but also directly and indirectly supports the defense industrial base, energy production, land management and technological adaptation,” the plan said.
USDA plans to implement a new process to ensure all research funded by the department provides value to U.S. agriculture and that key participants in the research are not owned or controlled by foreign adversaries.
“Technological evolution is affecting all critical infrastructure sectors. While these advancements broadly support U.S. agriculture, they bring with them certain risks, including access to unsecure data collection and data access by adversarial foreign entities, interruption of services enabled by cyber tools and potential for agroterrorism,” the plan said.
Five: Evaluate USDA Programs to Ensure America First Policies
The plan also outlines actions to ensure Americans are the beneficiary of USDA programs and funding.
“American farmers and businesses are at a disadvantage when USDA programs support other countries, including countries of concern or other foreign adversaries,” the plan said. “While most programs at USDA directly support American farmers and ranchers, some programs have a history of supporting other countries and adversarial interests.”
The plan points to the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs as two that have been allegedly used by by foreign adversaries to access research and development funding, while gaining foreign investment or control in pre-revenue start-ups.
“Additionally, the USDA BioPreferred® Program allows companies in foreign countries—even those from countries of concern or other foreign adversaries—to be placed in the BioPreferred® Program Catalog for the mandatory federal purchasing and voluntary labeling initiatives,” the plan said.
To ensure USDA programs benefit American agriculture, USDA will review its programs and prevent people and entities from countries of concern from taking advantage of them.
The department will also eliminate agreements going to foreign adversaries or those who are no longer aligned with USDA’s mission.
USDA funding will be prioritized to U.S.-made technology, research and innovation.
Six: Safeguarding Plant and Animal Health
The sixth area the plan addresses, Safeguarding Plant and Animal Health, is timely as the New World screwworm continues to move northward in Mexico.
The pest, if found in the United States, could be detrimental to the U.S. livestock and wildlife industries.
“Unintentional or intentional agricultural biosecurity threats—such as invasive species, foreign animal diseases, and pathogens—pose a serious risk to the resilience of American agriculture and the food supply,” the plan said. “Agencies across USDA are tasked with researching and responding to threats to plant and animal health.”
According to this section of the plan, research funded by USDA will focus on protecting plant and animal health through the development of vaccines, therapeutics and other innovations to mitigate or eradicate priority plant and animal diseases like citrus greening, Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, African swine fever, Foot and Mouth Disease and New World screwworm.
USDA will partner with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and other federal agencies to ensure agricultural projects they fund promote military readiness, protect U.S. plans and animals and enhance agricultural security.
USDA will also work with federal and other partners to strengthen its ability to respond to agricultural biosecurity threats and prioritize programs essential to safeguarding U.S. agriculture by preventing, detecting and mitigating agricultural biosecurity threats.
Seven: Protect Critical Infrastructure
The final area USDA’s plan will address is threats to agricultural companies, including cybersecurity threats, that can disrupt operations and cause significant losses.
“One of the most critically important pieces of this public-private relationship is making sure agriculture is not overlooked by the law enforcement, defense and national security communities and stakeholders who protect our nation from threats at home and abroad,” the plan said.
Under this part of the plan, USDA will work with private companies and the Food and Ag-Information Sharing and Analysis Center to ensure companies, regardless of size, have access to available resources to protect their operations from cybersecurity and ransomware attacks.
The department will also work with law enforcement and the intelligence community to ensure agricultural stakeholders have a voice and advocate in agricultural security.
USDA will also support the development of an agro-defense workforce, which the plan said will “create new jobs in leading multi-disciplinary industries and secure the agriculture sector here at home.”
That includes encouraging higher education programs that prepare the workforce to tackle emerging challenges to food and agriculture security.
“Also, this will ensure focus by security professionals and researchers on this vital sector and the unique threats arising from inherent characteristics of today’s agriculture industry such as interconnected global networks, dependence on foreign production and labor, security implications of emerging technology, and advances in biotechnology and implications for animal and plant health,” the plan said.
According to Rollins, the plan will serve as a launch point for USDA to work in further unison with state officials and other federal partners to further integrate agriculture into the broader national security efforts over the coming months and years, “reaffirming the critical nature of agriculture and the need for a cross governmental approach.”
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