South Dakota Searchlight reminds the Noem Administration that it doesn’t need a new law to block Chinese or other foreign acquisition of South Dakota agricultural land; since 1979, SDCL 43-2A-2 has banned non-resident aliens and foreign governments from acquiring more than 160 acres of cropland or cow pasture. Yet we have never enforced that law against 307 evidently illegal foreign ag land acquisitions:
South Dakota Searchlight asked the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources to disclose the number of times it has referred information to the attorney general, and to provide copies of any such records.
“Prior to 2022, DANR has no records responsive to your request,” the department replied in writing. “Since 2022, DANR has record of one referral attempt made to the Attorney General’s office.”
…According to the most recent federal data, South Dakota has had 307 instances of foreign people or entities acquiring more than 160 acres of ag land since the passage of the federal and state laws in the late 1970s. The latest USDA report says the total area of South Dakota agricultural land held by foreigners stands at about 380,000 acres, or about 595 square miles — representing a 3,000% increase from when the laws were enacted over four decades ago, but comprising less than 1% of all the land in the state.
Most of those acquisitions happened after 2015. Primarily, they involved European and Canadian wind energy companies.
About one-third of the foreign-controlled ag land in South Dakota was acquired by Canadians, with the majority of the remainder being from European countries including the United Kingdom, France, Spain and Germany. The rest totals less than 4,000 acres held by people or entities scattered across locations including the Bahamas, Mexico and Saudi Arabia.
Federal reports do not list any Chinese-owned ag land in South Dakota, although a Chinese company does own the Smithfield meatpacking plant in Sioux Falls, which is zoned as industrial land [Joshua Haiar, “State Has One Record of Acting on 44-Year-Old Foreign Ag Land Law,” South Dakota Searchlight, 2023.07.21].
Lawyer and Senator Lee Schoenbeck (R-5/Lake Kampeska) sees as clearly as I did last December why South Dakota wouldn’t enforce such a law—it’s not just Communist, it’s unconstitutional:
State Sen. Lee Schoenbeck, R-Watertown, is the Senate president pro tempore. He contends the state knowingly does not enforce the existing state laws on foreign ag-land ownership because, in his opinion, they’re unconstitutional.
“People knew the law exists, I knew the law exists,” Schoenbeck said. “Nobody cared. This is still America. What, are we supposed to tell people who they can sell their land to?” [Haiar, 2023.07.21]
As on so many other issues, on foreign participation in America’s bountiful agricultural market, Governor Noem is all talk and no action.
Should be able to sell? Then how about should be able to _not_ sell???
KN must send out graspers for the lowest hanging fruit whenever she gets the urge to make a national appearance or put a sleazy post up on her social media to keep the facade of doing something that resembles governing. It must be a full-time job to find topics easy enough for her to go after. Heck, for a $100,000 salary, one could go out and create their own sissy news for the governor to battle feel relevant.
My sister visiting from WA mentioned how often KN appears in her state’s media. She said KN has a terrible reputation there. Even her kids made a face when her name was brought up. Normally, my first reaction to dissing my state would be defensive. Not so much when it comes to the Covid Queen.
In the whiny republican saga of the bug in search of a windshield . . . NBC news studied foreign ownership of US agricultural land and found . . . next to nothing.
A smidgen over 0, null, nada, zero: “total amount of U.S. agricultural land owned by Chinese interests is less than three-hundredths of 1%”. Oh, the pestering facts.
One of the larger purchasers/owners, that republican Chinese operator, warm and fuzzy Smithfeild Foods.
What NBC did find was less than optimal reporting and enforcement mechanism.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/how-much-us-farmland-china-own-rcna99274
Ask oneself, how did this arise to a US national clamor? Perhaps a big republican donor was out-bid for a parcel and had created a political firestorm; or the fake issue was created by republican lobbyists.
On to the next imaginary republican problem . . . so we divert our attention from solving real problems.