KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Companies and individuals with ties to China are the largest foreign owners of agricultural land in Missouri, according to records obtained on Tuesday by the KSHB 41 I-Team.
The I-Team requested the foreign ownership records in response to Missouri Gov. Mike Parson’s executive order issued on Tuesday that bans citizens, residents, or businesses from foreign adversaries from buying agricultural land within 10 miles of staffed military facilities in the state.
Those adversaries include China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and Venezuela.
“With heightened concerns regarding ownership of Missouri farm land by foreign adversaries, especially China. We are signing this order to safeguard our military and intelligence assets, prevent security threats to our state, and give Missourians greater peace of mind," Parson said in a news conference. "When it comes to China and other foreign adversaries, we must take commonsense precautions that protect Missourians and our security resources."
Records from the Missouri Department of Agriculture (MDA), however, reveal businesses and individual with ties to China owned 42,596 acres of agricultural land in the state in 2022. That’s 36% of the total acres of foreign-owned land in Missouri.
READ: MDA'S report on foreign-owned land in Missouri
A corporation called Murphy-Brown of Missouri has the largest holding of Chinese-owned agricultural land — 13,331 acres in Sullivan county — in the state, according to the MDA.
Records show that entity, originally called Premium Standard Farms of Missouri, LLC, was created in 2007 as a hog production business.
The I-Team discovered that businesses and individuals from a total of 22 countries own 118,763 acres of agricultural land in the Show-Me State.
Besides China, other countries with vast holdings of agricultural land include Canada, New Zealand, and Spain.
In the 1970’s, Missouri and other Midwest states prohibited or restricted foreign ownership of land because of concerns about Japanese investments.
That changed in 2013, when lawmakers passed a law that allowed for one percent of the state’s agricultural land to be sold to foreign entities.
Parson voted in favor of that bill.
The governor’s executive order on Tuesday creates stricter requirements for foreign purchases and requires approval from the MDA before any foreign acquisition of the current 27,500,000 acres of agricultural land in the state. It does not affect existing landowners.
Parson said his order will not impact the state’s current partnerships with such foreign allies Israel, Germany, or Sweden.
He said investments from those and other allies total nearly $19 billion and employee thousands of Missourians.
"There are numerous Missouri employers from friendly nations that we have strong economic relationships with, and we must ensure we are not disrupting Missouri's economy or Missourians' lives and livelihoods,” Parson said. "As such, we believe this order, with the authority we have, sufficiently protects Missouri’s security interests from potential bad actors while not punishing our allies for being good economic partners or upstanding individuals fleeing oppression and coming to our nation legally in search of a better life."
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