In recent years, US farmland has been a major commodity being purchased by entities not historically associated with agriculture. These actors, both foreign and domestic, have often expressed interests that are far from beneficial to the continued security of American liberty. Driessen Fellow Kayley Chartier of Fort Hays State University in Kansas thought this was an important issue and recently spent a day educating her peers about this issue.
She and TPUSA Club Secretary Eli Francis set up a table in the campus Memorial Union, a high traffic location, to pass out literature. Students were shocked to learn exactly how much land, a quarter million acres each, that China and known Malthusian Bill Gates have recently acquired.
This recent surge in purchases has driven up land costs, often pricing local American farmers and ranchers out of the ability to expand their multi-generation family businesses. Consolidation of industries, such as American meat packers where four companies control 85% of the market. These four have committed to pushing out meat alternatives into the market, have contributed to rising grocery prices, and artificial manipulation of the American diet, which has become a concern for many Americans. This concerns even the US House of Representatives where the Foreign Adversary Risk Management Act is being considered to address the threats posed by nations like China purchasing domestic farms.
