Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced Tuesday morning the USDA’s Make Agriculture Great Again Initiative has refined its focus on national security with the National Farm Security Action Plan. This updated plan “seeks to protect our borders, enhances the farm safety net and domestic agricultural production, and improves outcomes for American consumers," according to Rollins.
The National Security Action Plan featured seven action points, focusing on American agriculture as key to national security.
Rollins said the security and protection of American agriculture requires "actively engaging at every level of government to take swift legislative and executive action to ban the purchase of American farmland by Chinese nationals and other foreign adversaries."
“American agriculture is not just about feeding our families," said Secretary Rollins. "But about protecting our Nation and standing up to foreign adversaries who are buying our farmland, stealing our research, and creating dangerous vulneralbilities in the very systems that sustain us.”
🔥BROOKE ROLLINS: We are taking America's farmland BACK from the Chinese Communist Party!
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) July 8, 2025
The Agriculture Secretary announced a plan to "BAN the purchase of American farmland by Chinese nationals and other foreign adversaries."
YES!pic.twitter.com/rkM0YCRAHI
Rollins was joined by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, and U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
"It's about America first, but it's also just the application of common sense," said Secretary of Defense Pete Hesgeth. "As someone who's charged with leading the defense department, I want to know who owns the land around our bases, and strategic bases, and get an understanding of why foreign entities, foreign companies, foreign individuals, might be buying up land around those bases. That's something I should be paying attention to on behalf of the American people."
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Arkansa Governor Sarah Sanders was one of three governors who attended the announcement of the USDA's plan on Tuesday morning. Governor Jim Pillen of Nebraska and Governor Bill Lee of Tennessee were also in attendance. Sanders said, “A country has to be able to feed itself, fuel itself, and fight for itself — to truly be free."
At least 19 properties across the United States are listed as Chinese-owned and are very close to U.S. military bases. These locations could allow foreign entities to surveil U.S. military operations via drones, radar, infra-red scanning or other tracking technologies, according to a New York Post review.
Secretary Rollins also pledged to immediately prioritize “all USDA funding in America for American-made technology, research and innovation" through the new National Farm Security Action Plan.
USDA outlined plans in conjunction with the Department of Treasury to review foreign transactions that involve farmland, agricultural businesses, agriculture biotechnology, or the agriculture industry.
“By analyzing and identifying supply chain gaps and other security vulnerabilities, USDA can help refocus domestic investment into key manufacturing sectors and identify non-adversarial partners to work with when domestic production is not available,” the plan states. "Importation of commodities and other agricultural products could introduce dangerous pathogens harmful to animal or human health and devastate U.S. industry if they neglect or disregard USDA safety and import requirements."
National security within agriculture has been a publicized concern since June when a pair of Chinese researchers were federally charged with trying to smuggle a dangerous crop-killing fungus into the US, according to the FBI.
In response to the new action plan, Kansas Senator Roger Marshall said, "Today, we tell China to get the hell out of American agriculture."
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