A Senate committee is unanimously passing a bill creates a board to review every agriculture purchase made by foreign persons.
That’s despite nearly every major state agriculture organization testifying against the bill.
Many of the farm groups agree with Gov. Kristi Noem that adversaries should be prevented from buying up South Dakota agricultural land.
Scott VanderWal is from South Dakota and is the vice president of the American Farm Bureau Federation. He said the group is supportive of the bill’s concept, but the legislation needs work.
“We think that handling this on the federal level is the way to go,” VanderWal said. “I don’t say that very often about things. A patchwork of state laws, we don’t think would be very constructive. It would be very confusing. I think it would be best to come from the top.”
U.S. Senator Mike Rounds and Congressman Dusty Johnson are sponsoring legislation that directs the federal CFIUS to prevent China, North Korea, Iran and Russia from acquiring land in the United States.
Noem's bill establishes a governor-appointed panel approves purchases, leases and inheritances of ag land by foreign persons, entities and governments. It opens a twenty-year window for the state to investigate those transactions and it gives the governor final decision.
Many Senators on the panel agree with the Farm Bureau, like State Sen. Herman Otten. However, he’s unsure when the feds will act.
“That’s why I’m inclined to support this bill,” Otten said. “There are some things that need to be worked out with it. Killing it now does not allow any opportunity to work through those issues and fix them.”
Other groups are concerned about the effect the bill would have on agriculture research.
Current South Dakota law prevents foreign persons from purchasing more than 160 acres of land in South Dakota. Part of Noem’s pitch is preventing adversaries from buying ag land near Ellsworth Air Force base.
Mitch Richter is a lobbyist for South Dakota Farmers Union. He said the base is surrounded by non-ag land available for purchase.
“This bill doesn’t cover any of that," Richter said. "You’ve heard about national security, but if I was a bad actor I could certainly go in there, buy a piece of ground, put up a 200 x 400 ft. building, wrap it with barbed wire and you would never know what I was doing in there.”
The bill now heads to the Senate floor.
