New Jersey state Sen. Doug Steinhardt is paying attention to the surge in buying from the Chinese communists when it comes to American farmland.
In the past 10 years, Chinese ownership of American farmland has gone from $81 million to nearly TWO BILLION dollars. Many foreign policy experts are raising warning flags about this, especially after the Bank of China loaned $4 billion to the largest producer of pork products in the world to buy the U.S.-based Smithfield Foods.
More than 1 in 3 Americans view China as a direct threat to the US, with more than half of Republicans seeing Beijing as the enemy. We do have concrete evidence of the Chinese military hacking into our intelligence agencies with cases from 2014 through 2021.
Between the hacking, the massive military build-up, and now strategic purchasing, there is room to be concerned for sure.
Six states: Hawaii, Iowa, Minnesota, Mississippi, North Dakota, and Oklahoma, have already banned foreign ownership of farmland and one New Jersey senator wants to add the Garden State to the list.
Sen. Doug Steinhardt compared food security to national security and he is fighting to protect our local interests from foreign intervention.
Here's the excerpt to describe the Senate bill:
...would prohibit any foreign government or foreign person from acquiring, purchasing, or otherwise obtaining an interest in any agricultural land in the State, with limited exceptions.
Senator Steinhardt joined me on the air to discuss the growing issues regarding the aggressive actions of the Chinese Communist government.
New Jersey government cannot ignore international issues that may impact the security of our military installations and our food supply. I applaud Doug's actions here to get ahead of the curve.