USDA Announces New Strategies to Safeguard American Agriculture

(Washington, D.C., December 30, 2025) – In a significant move under the USDA’s National Farm Security Action Plan (PDF, 1.2 MB), U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins unveiled a series of coordinated actions aimed at enhancing American agricultural research and innovation. These efforts focus on ensuring that ideas and technologies remain within U.S. borders or with allied nations, prioritizing the welfare of American farmers and ranchers across all USDA programs.

Strengthening National Security through Transparency

These actions mark a historic step toward improving transparency concerning foreign ownership of agricultural land in the U.S. The USDA aims to ensure that federal programs and purchasing preferences do not inadvertently support supply chains dominated by foreign adversaries. Key components of this initiative include opening an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) regarding the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (AFIDA). This will allow public input as the USDA seeks to enhance the regulation of foreign investment in U.S. agriculture.

Quotation from Secretary Rollins

“Strengthening national security starts with knowing who owns our farmland and where federal dollars are flowing,” Secretary Rollins stated. “These actions close long-standing gaps in oversight and enforcement by improving transparency around foreign land ownership and ensuring USDA programs support American farmers and manufacturers while prioritizing domestic supply chains – not foreign adversaries.”

Modernizing the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (AFIDA)

The AFIDA mandates that foreign investors who acquire, transfer, or hold interests in U.S. agricultural land must report these transactions to the USDA. The National Farm Security Action Plan emphasizes the need for robust implementation of reforms in the AFIDA process, including enhancing verification and monitoring of reported data.

The USDA is inviting feedback on potential changes that may streamline AFIDA reporting requirements, facilitating better tracking of foreign acquisitions of agricultural land. This initiative is poised to enhance collaboration between the USDA and the Treasury Department through a Memorandum of Understanding (PDF, 164 KB) concerning CFIUS (Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States) cases involving agricultural land transfers.

Concerns About Foreign Control

As it stands, entities linked to foreign adversaries control over 277,000 acres of agricultural land in the United States. Each acre poses a risk to food supply chains and potentially serves as a conduit for agroterrorism, as well as providing opportunities for surveillance and disruption of critical infrastructure, including military bases.

Enhancements to the BioPreferred Program

The USDA is set to reinforce the Administration’s commitment to ending market-distorting subsidies for unreliable, foreign-controlled energy sources. It will revise the BioPreferred and Guaranteed Lending Programs to align with the National Farm Security Action Plan, ensuring that federal purchasing efforts prioritize American producers.

The BioPreferred Program not only bolsters domestic manufacturing but also promotes the purchase and utilization of U.S. biobased products, driving economic development and creating jobs. Moving forward, effective immediately, products and entities from countries identified as foreign adversaries will no longer qualify for the BioPreferred Program or USDA guaranteed lending programs. Compliance audits will be mandated for existing participants to maintain their status.

The USDA BioPreferred Program is currently funded through September 30, 2026, highlighting its commitment to American agriculture as crucial to national security and its effort to mitigate threats from foreign adversaries.

###