California Ag Network

Tag: farm security

  • New Online Portal for Reporting Foreign-Owned Ag Land Transactions

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is launching a new online portal to streamline reporting of transactions involving U.S. agricultural land by foreign persons, which can include businesses and governments, under the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978 (AFIDA). The new online portal is part of a broader effort to strengthen enforcement and protect American farmland as USDA continues its implementation of the National Farm Security Action Plan (PDF, 1.2 MB).

    “President Trump is putting America First, and this includes increasing transparency and scrutiny of one of our most valuable national assets, American farmland. We are working to improve reporting of foreign owned land in the United States. This move to streamline the reporting portal will increase compliance and assist our efforts to effectively enforce accurate reporting of interests held by foreign adversaries in U.S. farmland,” said Secretary Brooke Rollins. “The online portal will allow us to obtain verifiable information about foreign interests in American agricultural land and protect the security of our farmers.”

    The new online portal is available at afida.landmark.usda.gov. Users can access the portal with Login.gov, a sign in service that provides secure online access to participate in certain government programs and reporting requirements.

    The new digital portal will gather the same information found on the current form FSA-153 and those subject to filing may still file using the current FSA-153 hard copy form if desired. However, filers should not duplicate filings by using both submission options.

    About the National Farm Security Action Plan

    One of the key tenets of USDA’s National Farm Security Action Plan (PDF, 1.2 MB) is strengthening processes around disclosure of foreign persons who have an interest in U.S. farmland. This historic plan, announced in July 2025, calls for aggressive implementation of reforms to the AFIDA process including improved verification and monitoring of collected AFIDA data. In addition to the new portal, USDA published an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for AFIDA in December 2025.

    About AFIDA

    The new portal is part of USDA’s efforts to streamline its process for electronic submission and retention of AFIDA disclosures, as initially required by the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023. Today USDA also shared its annual AFIDA report for 2024 with Congress, which is available online. The report lists foreign holdings of U.S. agricultural land as 46 million acres, as of December 31, 2024 and includes a section on land held and acquired by China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea in recent years.

    AFIDA became law in 1978, and its regulations were created to establish a nationwide system for the collection of information pertaining to foreign ownership of U.S. agricultural land. The regulations require foreign investors who acquire, transfer or hold an interest in U.S. agricultural land to report such holdings and transactions to the Secretary of Agriculture.

    The data obtained from AFIDA disclosures are used in the preparation of an annual report to Congress, which is published online.

    The AFIDA regulations define the term “foreign person” and specifies the information that must be included in the report. AFIDA focuses on foreign persons who hold direct or indirect interest in the agricultural land, provided those foreign persons with an indirect interest have “significant interest or substantial control” in the direct interest holder.

  • USDA Standardizes Grant and Cooperative Agreement Requirements

    U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins has signed a Secretary’s Memorandum directing all USDA agencies and staff offices to immediately adopt and implement the first-ever set of USDA General Terms and Conditions for all future awards.

    “Since Day One, the Trump Administration has been working to promote government efficiency, streamline unnecessary regulations, and eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse in all USDA programs. As we took action to eliminate radical left ideology and foreign adversaries within these programs, we quickly realized the herculean task of updating over 100 sets of terms and conditions, some of which didn’t even have termination clauses, each time a new policy or priority was announced,” said Secretary Brooke Rollins. “Today’s action not only reduces government bureaucracy and makes it easier for USDA customers to access our programs, but it also strengthens our ability to take swift action when recipients and cooperators—and even recipients of subawards and subcontracts—are not compliant with Federal law and applicable Executive Orders.”

    USDA administers an expansive grant and cooperative agreement portfolio, spanning 21 agencies and staff offices. In FY2025 alone, the Department distributed over $145 billion through 287 programs, resulting in nearly 38,000 new awards to farmers, ranchers, foresters, families, rural communities, small businesses, universities, and various other entities. Currently, there are 50,979 active awards across the entire USDA enterprise, underscoring the critical need for consistent oversight and accountability.

    Until now, every agency and staff office implementing these programs utilized a different version of terms and conditions when entering into arrangements with recipients and cooperators, resulting in over 2,200 pages of terms and conditions across over 100 different documents. This patchwork approach to award management at USDA has created unchecked paperwork burdens and barriers for producers and small businesses seeking financial assistance from USDA and also made it difficult to swiftly implement new policies and priorities across all programs.

    Under this new directive, all USDA grant, cooperative agreement, and mutual interest agreement programs will utilize the same terms and conditions, and award recipients and cooperators will only need to navigate 50 or less pages of requirements.

    This action is an important step in the implementation of USDA’s National Farm Security Action Plan and Executive Order 14332, Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking, as well as various other Executive Orders and Secretary’s Memorandums that have been signed this year to establish a return to American principles and align the Department’s focus towards its original objectives.

  • Farm Security Action Plan to Protect U.S. Farmland and Federal Programs from Foreign Adversaries

    As committed to under USDA’s National Farm Security Action Plan U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins has announced a number of coordinated actions to continue to emphasize American agricultural research and innovation by ensuring ideas stay in America or among our allies, not with hostile nations and that we are putting American farmers and ranchers first in every USDA program, period.

    These historic actions strengthen transparency around foreign ownership of U.S. agricultural land and ensure federal programs and purchasing preferences do not support supply chains controlled by foreign adversaries. The actions include opening up an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) on the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (AFIDA) to allow the public an opportunity to comment as USDA moves to improve the regulation and strengthening the implementation of USDA’s BioPreferred Program to ensure federal programs and purchasing preferences prioritize American producers and manufacturers and rid out foreign adversaries.

    “Strengthening national security starts with knowing who owns our farmland and where federal dollars are flowing,” said Secretary Rollins. “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.”

    AFIDA Modernization

    AFIDA requires foreign investors who acquire, transfer, or hold an interest in U.S. agricultural land to report such holdings and transactions to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). USDA’s National Farm Security Action Plan(PDF, 1.2 MB) calls for aggressive implementation of reforms to the AFIDA process including improved verification and monitoring of collected AFIDA data.

    USDA seeks input on potential regulatory or other changes that may improve the efficiency and effectiveness of its AFIDA reporting and filing requirements which will result in improved tracking of foreign adversary agricultural land purchases to the public and will further enhance USDA’s Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) (PDF, 164 KB) with Treasury which memorializes cooperation on CFIUS (Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States) cases involving the transfer of agricultural land.

    Foreign adversary linked entities currently control at least 277,000 acres of agricultural land in the United States. Each acre represents a threat to our food supply chains, a vector for agroterrorism, and a potential platform for surveillance and sabotage of our military bases and critical infrastructure.

    BioPreferred Program Updates

    USDA will advance the Administration’s efforts to end market-distorting subsidies for unreliable, foreign-controlled energy sources and strengthen domestic supply chains by updating the BioPreferred and Guaranteed Lending Programs, consistent with USDA’s National Farm Security Action Plan, to protect the integrity of federal purchasing and ensure American producers come first.

    The BioPreferred Program supports domestic manufacturing, increases the purchase and use of U.S. biobased products to spur economic development, create new jobs and open new domestic markets for crops grown by American farmers and producers. Moving forward and effective immediately entities and products from foreign adversary countries are no longer eligible for the BioPreferred Program or USDA guaranteed lending programs. Current participants must comply with audits or risk removal.

    The USDA BioPreferred Program is currently funded through September 30, 2026.

    Taken together, these actions reiterate USDA’s historic commitment to American agriculture as a key element of our nation’s national security, addressing urgent threats from foreign adversaries and strengthening the resilience of our nation’s food and agricultural systems.