South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) signed a bill March 4 that bans ownership of agricultural land in South Dakota by people, companies and governments from six countries, while legislators sent her a flurry of other bills as the annual legislative session’s final week began.
The ban on foreign ownership includes China.
“Their goal is to dominate the world, and the way they do that is by taking out America,” Noem said during a bill-signing ceremony at the Capitol.
Under an existing state law dating to 1979, foreign people and governments were already barred from owning more than 160 acres of agricultural land in the state—with exceptions for land that’s inherited or held as security for debt, for foreign people and governments whose right to hold land is secured by treaties, and for foreigners who’ve established residency in the U.S.
The new bill goes further, adding a total ban on any agricultural land ownership in South Dakota by China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela.
The bill also bans those countries from leases and easements, with exceptions for agricultural research on land up to 320 acres, or contract livestock feeding “at an animal feeding operation, by a family farm unit, a family farm corporation, or an authorized farm corporation.”
The bill says there is no limit on the acreage of easements or leases for other countries. An easement is a voluntary agreement granted by landowners for access to their land.
Recent federal data says foreigners have 380,000 acres of ag land holdings in South Dakota; however, the same data lists the foreign “percent of ownership” as zero for 266,000 of those acres, suggesting they may be easements or leases. Some of those easements are for wind energy projects undertaken by companies from Europe and Canada.
This year’s lawmaking session ended March 7, except for a day later in the month to consider any gubernatorial vetoes.
Forest grants
After a lengthy debate, the House narrowly rejected a bill to use $6 million in remaining federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money on grants for loggers and sawmill operators in the Black Hills, where logging has declined in the face of changing forest conditions.
Some House members noted that the governor’s Bureau of Finance and Management has cast doubt on whether the use of the funds is a qualifying one under ARPA rules. Approving the spending could put the state on the hook later if the federal government disapproves, some representatives said. — Joshua Haiar, Makenzie Huber and Seth Tupper, South Dakota Searchlight
Republished under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
