PIERRE, S.D. – Foreign ownership of agricultural land in South Dakota has climbed from about 113,000 acres in 2011 to roughly 380,000 acres in 2022, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
That figure accounts for approximately one percent of the state’s privately held farmland.
This marks a sharp increase from the numbers reported in a 2013 Northern Plains News story, which first identified a gradual trend of rising foreign land holdings in South Dakota. The increase has prompted new legislation at the state level.
In 2024, Gov. Kristi Noem signed House Bill 1231 into law. The bill bans citizens and companies from countries like China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea from purchasing or leasing agricultural land in the state. Limited exceptions apply for agricultural research and livestock operations.
Nationwide, foreign holdings now exceed 43 million acres—3.4 percent of all privately owned farmland in the U.S. Canadian investors remain the top landholders, while the USDA reports no current Chinese ownership of agricultural land in South Dakota.
However, the largest pork producer in America is owned by a Chinese company. The largest-ever Chinese acquisition of an American company in 2013 was highly controversial in America and in South Dakota.
The Smithfield Foods pork processing plant in Sioux Falls, S.D., is a major facility and is one of the largest pork processing plants in the United States, representing about 4-5% of the nation’s total pork production.
The central concern among critics has remained largely the same in the years since: that giving China control over such a huge chunk of America’s pork supply represented a threat to American food security.
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