Arkansas forces Chinese-owned seed producer to sell 160 acres of farmland amid national security concerns
The state of Arkansas is forcing a Chinese-owned seed producer to sell 160 acres of farmland it owns in the state within the next two years over national security concerns.
Syngenta, the mother company of Northrop King Seed Co. — which also creates crop-protection ingredients — has owned the land in Craighead County for more than 30 years.
But in 2017, it was acquired by China National Chemical Corp. — which is on the US Department of Defense’s list of Chinese military companies that pose a threat to our national security.
“Seeds are technology,” Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at a news conference on Tuesday, claiming countries that are hostile to the United States could use knowledge of American farming practices to their advantage.
“Chinese-owned state corporations filter that technology back to their homeland, stealing American research and telling our enemies to target American farms,” she explained.
“This is a clear threat to our national security and to our farmers.”
Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin added: “The idea that the Chinese government would care about non-military assets is exactly what they’ve demonstrated over the last few decades.”
Griffin also announced at the press conference Tuesday that Syngenta had missed a June deadline to disclose its foreign ownership — so he will fine the company the state’s maximum of $280,000.
Syngenta will now have just 30 days to pay the penalty, and if it doesn’t, Griffin warned, the state will look at removing its ownership of the land in the court system.
The company has since slammed the government’s response, noting in a statement that its land is “primarily used for research and project development for the US market” and is regularly examined by federal officials.
Chinese officials also have never dictated which areas of farmland it should buy or lease, or any of its other actions, spokesman Saswato Das said.
“The order for Syngenta to divest itself of 160 acres of agricultural land in Craighead County, which the company has owned since 1988, is a shortsighted action that fails to account for the effects of such an action — intended or not, on the US agricultural market,” Das said.
“Syngenta’s work in the US — including in Arkansas — continues to benefit American farmers, strengthens American agriculture and makes the US a more innovative and competitive participant in the global agricultural marketplace.”
“Our people in Arkansas are Americans, led by Americans, who care deeply about serving Arkansas farmers,” he added.
The announcement on Tuesday marks the first enforcement of a bill Huckabee Sanders signed into law earlier this year to ban foreign entities from owning agricultural land in the state.
It remains unclear whether other corporations will be swept up in the enforcement of Act 636.
Foreign entities held an interest in approximately 40 million acres of US agricultural land as of Dec. 31, 2021, according to USDA records obtained by CNN.
That represented 3.1% of all privately held land, and just 1.8% of all land in the United States.
China, meanwhile, had less than 1% of the foreign-held land, while Canadian investors held 31%.
With Post wires.
