Drivers of state legislative actions restricting foreign holdings of U.S. agricultural land

Abstract

Foreign holdings of U.S. agricultural land have raised national and food security concerns. These concerns have been reflected in the significant amount of state legislative actions that seek to restrict foreign holdings of U.S. agricultural land in recent years. While there has not been clear evidence of the negative impacts of such foreign holdings, these restrictive legislations could deprive immigrants’ residential rights or lead to unintended economic consequences. This naturally leads to the question: what are the factors driving these controversial state legislative actions? This study informs this important issue by investigating factors predicting state legislators’ bill proposals and voting behavior. We then conduct an analysis at the state level, accounting for the sequential nature of state-level activity, which allows us to further capture the impacts of state agricultural and China-related characteristics. Results suggest that while protecting state agricultural assets is part of the consideration, these state legislative actions are also responding to national security concerns raised by China-related incidents in recent years.