Another China boogeyman: Some Wisconsinites unknowingly complain about Canadian ownership of U.S. agricultural land

 

Headline:  Capital Times, 3/7/2025

Erin McGroarty reports: 

Tyler Wenzlaff, director of national affairs at the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation, also said he is not aware of any foreign adversary buying farmland near a Wisconsin military base. But Wenzlaff said he thinks it’s a good idea to keep an eye on potential property sales to foreign buyers. 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that as of Dec. 31, 2023, the four countries considered foreign adversaries — China, Iran, North Korean and Russia — combined hold less than 1% of foreign owned agricultural land in the United States.  [emphasis added]

[snip]

The majority of foreign land ownership in Wisconsin is related to Canadian forestry projects, Wenzlaff pointed out.

Related reading:

Wisconsin Public Radio, 7/10/2024

Trevor Hook reports:

Zhang and two other researchers recently published an article — “Mapping and Contextualizing Foreign Ownership and Leasing of U.S. Farmland” — in the 2024 Journal of the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers. 

Zhang said his recent research found that China and other “adversarial countries” hold zero acres of land in the “Lake Region” of the U.S., a space that includes Wisconsin. His team found that Canada, Denmark and Portugal are the top three holders of Wisconsin’s foreign-held land.