FARMLAND Act Bans Foreign Persons From Farm Subsidies, Imposes 25% Fines on Land Sale Violations

The newly introduced Foreign Agricultural Restrictions to Maintain Local Agriculture and National Defense Act of 2025—the FARMLAND Act—is a major federal effort to crack down on foreign ownership of U.S. agricultural land. Driven by national security concerns, this bill significantly increases penalties for non-reporting, bans foreign persons from federal farm programs, and expands the government’s power to review land purchases, particularly those near critical infrastructure.

The New Cost of Missing Paperwork

If you’re involved in selling or transferring U.S. agricultural land, the consequences for skipping paperwork are about to get serious. The bill updates the 1978 Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act by drastically hiking civil penalties for failing to report a transaction or knowingly submitting false information. Instead of a fixed maximum fine, the new penalty must be set between 5 percent and 25 percent of the value of the violation (Sec. 2). For a $10 million land deal, that’s a potential fine of up to $2.5 million. On top of that, the Secretary of Agriculture is now required to publicly release the name of anyone who pays a fine, even if that person is currently appealing the penalty. This creates a powerful new deterrent through both financial pain and public exposure.

Banned from the Farm Club

For foreign persons who own or operate U.S. farmland, the most immediate impact comes from Section 7, which bans them from participating in any Farm Service Agency (FSA) programs. This means if you meet the definition of a “foreign person” under the 1978 Act, you can no longer access crucial federal support like disaster relief, conservation payments, or commodity programs. To enforce this, the bill requires anyone applying for an FSA program to sign a certification stating they are not a foreign person. If a foreign person is caught receiving benefits, they face a civil penalty of up to 125 percent of the total benefits improperly received. This provision is designed to ensure U.S. taxpayer dollars are not subsidizing foreign entities, but it will cut off a significant source of financial support for foreign landowners currently operating within the system.

CFIUS Gets a Seat at the Farm Table

Section 5 significantly expands the authority of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS)—the inter-agency group that reviews foreign investments for national security risks. CFIUS can now review real estate purchases by “foreign entities of concern” (like those from China or Russia) if the deal involves more than 320 acres or is valued over $5 million. This review applies particularly if the land is used for agriculture, energy extraction, or materials critical to biotech or national defense. To bring agricultural expertise into the room, the Secretary of Agriculture and the Commissioner of Food and Drugs are now officially added as members of CFIUS. This change means large-scale land deals, especially those near military bases or critical infrastructure, will face intense federal scrutiny.

New Watchdogs and Big Data

The bill creates a new Chief of Operations for Investigative Actions within the USDA, tasked with hiring staff, getting security clearances, and investigating “malign efforts” aimed at stealing U.S. agricultural technology (Sec. 4). This new team will work with the FBI, Homeland Security, and the Justice Department to track down technology theft and hostile actions related to the farming base. Furthermore, the USDA and Homeland Security must create a central, publicly available database of foreign-owned agricultural land within three years (Sec. 6). This increased transparency, backed by a new $35 million investment in technology and secure facilities (Sec. 8), aims to give the public and policymakers a clear, state-by-state picture of exactly who owns what, and where the potential security risks lie.