Fact: China owns less than 1% of US farmland
Like many Republican-controlled states, Oklahoma recently enacted a ban on Chinese companies owning agricultural land, a move lawmakers said was important for both national security and the protection of the food system.
But in Oklahoma, just one Chinese company owns agricultural land – Smithfield Foods.
In this week’s feature story, Oklahoma-based reporter Juan Vassallo looked at how lawmakers eventually carved out an exception for Smithfield Foods and its hog operation in the northwest part of the state.
Juan’s story also compares Oklahoma’s ban with a similar one in Arkansas, where state officials haven’t provided exceptions for agriculture companies.
Despite bans in Oklahoma, Arkansas and dozens of other states, federal data shows that Chinese land ownership remains extremely low.
“Of all the farmland that’s owned by foreigners, Chinese entities have a stake in less than 1% of that,” said Dr. David Ortega, a professor of food economics and policy at Michigan State University and one of the study’s authors. “We are targeting interests from specific countries that can lead to rises in xenophobia and discrimination.”
— Ben Felder, editor-in-chief
DATA HARVEST: Recent droughts hit the top cattle counties hardest
By Juan Vassallo, Investigate Midwest
The nation’s cattle inventory is at its lowest level in decades, the result of a long-term decline that has been pushed even lower in recent years by drought.
Much of the country endured severe dry spells in recent years, most notably in 2022. But the impact has been especially felt in the regions where America’s beef industry is most concentrated.
In November 2022, the U.S reached a drought index of 202 on the Drought Severity and Coverage Index (DSCI), where values range from 0, meaning no dryness, to 500, indicating exceptional drought across an entire area. For the top 200 cattle-producing counties — together representing roughly a quarter of the national herd — the drought index peaked at 267.5 in the same period, far higher than the national average.
OPINION: New WOTUS proposal not a long term solution to Clean Water Act ambiguities
By Dave Dickey, Investigate Midwest
If there is one thing that universally gives farmers across the country major headaches, it’s trying to determine whether water on their properties fall under the jurisdiction of the federal Clean Water Act.
Major headaches.
Generally speaking, I’m in favor of laws and regulations that everyone can wrap their heads around. Farmers shouldn’t have to hire a world-class law team to determine the legalities of digging a pond.
What recent history has shown is that Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) regulations are temporal, amounting to a hamster spinning on its exercise wheel.
Unfortunately, EPA’s new WOTUS plan, no matter how well intended it might be, is at best a bandage for more systemic problems that can’t be solved with a rewrite.
ICYMI: This series is worth another look
If you missed this one earlier in the year, now is a good time to revisit it.
Unyielding takes readers inside the health challenges unfolding across rural Missouri and the wider Midwest, where cancer rates are highest in the most remote communities and access to care keeps slipping as hospitals close. It also examines how pesticide use shapes daily life in farm regions, even as research links these chemicals to higher risks of cancer and other health concerns.
Unyielding shows what these pressures mean for the people who live and work closest to the fields that feed the country.
News from trusted media partners
Factory farms in Iowa generate 110 billion pounds of manure per year. No one tracks where it’s going, Sentient Media
Corn’s clean-energy promise is clashing with its climate footprint, Floodlight
