# Understanding the Farmland Security Act of 2025

This bill strengthens the government's ability to track and penalize foreign ownership of American farmland, particularly when foreign entities try to hide their involvement through shell corporations. Currently, there's a law requiring foreign investors to disclose when they buy or lease agricultural land in the United States, but the penalties for breaking the rules are relatively weak. This bill removes the cap on how much the government can fine violators and adds stricter consequences for those who use shell corporations—basically fake companies with no real operations—to secretly purchase farmland.

The most significant change targets foreign-owned shell corporations that fail to properly report their farmland purchases. Instead of paying a modest fine, these entities would now face a penalty equal to 100 percent of the land's current market value. So if a foreign shell corporation secretly bought a farm worth $5 million and got caught, they could be fined $5 million. However, the bill gives them a 60-day grace period to fix filing mistakes after the government notifies them, so honest errors can be corrected without triggering the maximum penalty.

Beyond penalties, the bill beefs up enforcement and transparency. The Department of Agriculture will now conduct annual audits of at least 10 percent of all foreign investment reports to catch violations, provide training to local officials to identify unreported foreign-owned farmland, and submit yearly reports to Congress about foreign agricultural activities. The government will research how foreign leasing affects family farms, rural communities, and food supply, plus track trends in shell corporation purchases. The bill allocates $2 million per year through 2030 to fund these new enforcement and research efforts.

For most Americans, this bill won't directly affect them, but it aims to protect American farmland from being quietly controlled by foreign interests. It's designed to ensure that when foreign investors buy or lease U.S. agricultural land, they do so transparently and face real consequences if they try to hide their involvement.

Farmland Security Act of 2025

Perez, Marie Gluesenkamp

Farmland Security Act of 2025This bill&nbsp;authorizes increased civil penalties for violations of the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978 (AFIDA)&nbsp;and increases Department of Agriculture (USDA) oversight of and research into foreign investment in agricultural land.&nbsp;As background, AFIDA and the regulations that implemented the act require foreign investors who acquire, transfer, or hold an interest in U.S. agricultural land to report such holdings and transactions to USDA.In general, the bill allows USDA to determine an appropriate civil penalty amount for an&nbsp;AFIDA violation by removing the cap that currently&nbsp;prohibits the civil penalty from exceeding 25% of the fair market value of the interest in the agricultural land&nbsp;associated with the violation.Under an exception in the bill, the civil penalty for a foreign-owned shell corporation is 100% of the fair market value of the interest in the agricultural land. The bill defines&nbsp;a shell corporation to include a company, association, firm, partnership, society, joint stock company, trust, or estate that has no or nominal operations. The penalty does not apply if the shell corporation remedies a defective filing or failure to file within 60 days of USDA providing notice.USDA must conduct annual compliance audits of at least 10% of the reports. Further, USDA must provide&nbsp;state and county-level personnel certain annual training.USDA must also annually conduct research and submit a report to Congress on foreign investment in agricultural land, including trends in the purchase of U.S. agricultural land by foreign-owned shell corporations.