Seed

Is China a National Security Threat to U.S. Agriculture?

Fri, 07 Nov 2025 14:28:15 GMT

It’s been more than a decade since China made very public, very large investments in its future to feed its own people and gain greater control over international agribusiness.

In 2013, WH Group (then known as Shuanghui International) purchased Smithfield Foods for $4.7 billion, which was a U.S. company with 25 U.S. plants, 460 farms, and contracts with 2,100 producers in 12 states. A year later in back-to-back months, COFCO (China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Corporation) bought two major agricultural trading companies: Noble Agri and Nidera. Then in 2017, ChemChina acquired Swiss-based Syngenta for $46 billion.

These acquisitions highlight the production and power China has amassed, and it’s being called into question by policy thinktank America First Policy Institute (AFPI).

“We know that many of these state-owned enterprises have an obligation to the CCP, and that is to report in and turn in all of the intellectual property they collect around the world or trade secrets and turn it in the Chinese Communist Party, giving them an edge and their ability to offshore a lot of our production from the United States,” says Ambassador Kip Tom, Indiana farmer and AFPI expert.

In a recent report, AFPI spotlighted the following vulnerabilities for U.S. farmers and consumers:

Smithfield controls 23% of U.S. pork processing
The U.S. market accounts for 23% of The Syngenta Group’s revenues
DJI drones are used by U.S. farmers to collect field data

One policy recommendation from AFPI is for Syngenta and Smithfield Foods to “divest to a domestic company or, at a minimum, a company not principally managed by an adversary of the United States.”

“Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party pose a threat to American farmers and U.S. food security,” says Congressman John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), Chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party. “They’re engaged in economic aggression against the United States. We must protect our farms, feed mills, processing plants, and slaughterhouses. The CCP strategy is two-fold, undermine U.S. food security while siege-proofing their own.”

The full report is available here.

Ambassador Tom says in addition to direct or majority ownership by the CCP, global supply chains have evolved over recent decades resulting in U.S. farmers being more susceptible to negative impacts.

“We’re going to need to do everything we can do in our regulatory regime to make sure we can bring back these supply chains,” Tom says. “With the amount of sourcing that we’ve done in chemistries around the world, our fertilizer production, computer chips that run our tractors, everything, we are very vulnerable.”

Another aspect of Chinese ownership that has come into focus is foreign owned land in the U.S. The most recent reports peg a minimum of 35 million acres of farmland (3.4% of all U.S. ag land) is foreign owned, with Chinese companies owning around 350,000 acres. Of that, Brazos Highland owns 102,345 acres, and Smithfield owns 97,975 acres. The topic garnered attention at the state level with more than a handful of states passing legislation limiting foreign farmland ownership.

“Farmland is critical in the United States,” Tom says. “We know that the Fufang Group tried to place a [corn milling] plant up near Grand Forks, North Dakota, near an Air Force base, that was a strategic problem. That same group came to Indiana, and we stood up and said the same thing, ‘no, this shouldn’t be allowed.’ So it comes back to the states to get involved and make sure we put the measures in place to not allow this to happen.”

AFPI applies a skeptical eye on DJI drones, a Chinese company currently the largest manufacturer of drones worldwide.

“I would be very supportive, and I hope many of us farmers would be, to see the DJI drones go away. We should never underestimate the Chinese ability to use any information that they gather from the United States,” Tom says. “But we need to make sure that we shore up the production of drones here in the United States with American parts and information that’s processed here in the United States.”

In addition to their agribusiness investments, China has ramped up its public-funded research . Since 2008, China has outspent the U.S. in comparable public sector spending for agricultural research, and furthermore, since 2019, China has spent twice as much, or double, as the U.S.

“This is all part of the BRICS initiative, Brazil, Russia, India, and China. And we know that actually the Brazil has fast forward their agriculture development in their nation,” Tom says. “We know that now they are leading suppliers and a lot of the commodities that are produced in the world today, whether it’s corn, soybeans, wheat, beef, hogs, and they’re getting into the biofuels. Because of the theft of some of these intellectual property products that we had here in the United States, namely genetics, corn genetics, we know that China in a few years here will probably be self -sufficient on corn.”

USDA Aims to Boost Fair Competition and Lower Food Prices, Targeting Seed and Meat Industries

Tue, 08 Oct 2024 15:08:36 GMT

USDA announced several initiatives to promote fair competition in American agriculture and reduce food prices for consumers Tuesday morning, in line with President Biden’s Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American economy.

Seed competition framework. USDA introduced a three-part strategy to enhance seed system diversity, competition, and resilience:
• Improving patent-related disclosure for seeds to clarify research opportunities.
• Providing guidance to USDA researchers on using protected germplasm.
• Encouraging the sharing of federally funded germplasm for research and plant breeding.

Meat Retail Industry Report

USDA published an interim report assessing competitive conditions in the meat retail industry, focusing on beef markets as a case study. The report identifies:
• Increasing market concentration among top packers, distributors, and retailers.
• Concerns from farmers and small to midsize processors about problematic practices by intermediaries.

Cattle Price Discovery Initiative

USDA announced steps to enhance price discovery and fairness in cattle markets through an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR). This initiative aims to:
• Improve the base prices in fed cattle purchasing agreements.
• Address concerns about the negative effects of Alternative Marketing Agreements (AMAs) on the spot market.

Impact and Next Steps

These actions are part of the Biden/Harris administration’s efforts to:
• Open new markets for farmers
• Provide more competitive choices
• Lower food costs for consumers
• Support small businesses and family farms

USDA said it will continue its investigative study, including through subpoenas, and seek public input on potential next steps to ensure fair competition in the agricultural sector. Additionally, in the upcoming months, USDA will issue an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) seeking public input around how best to address practices used in meat merchandising that may violate the Packers and Stockyards Act.

Corn Belt Could Freeze as Late as June

Sun, 15 Nov 2020 19:42:13 GMT

With cold temperatures lingering longer than many farmers prefer, you might wonder just how late a freeze could hit. Historically, the Corn Belt has seen some, but not many, freezes after June 1. Most late freezes occur in the May time frame. Take a look at the map below for your area.

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What to expect if late freezes hit corn and soybean seedlings.

First and foremost, wait three to five days before checking corn and soybeans for freeze or frost injury. This gives the plants time to bounce back so you can determine the actual level of damage.

“At young developmental stages, a soybean plant is more susceptible than corn to aboveground damage by frost or lethal cold temperatures because its growing points are exposed above ground as soon as the crop emerges,” according to a report from Bob Nielsen and Ellsworth Christmas at Purdue University. “Frost or freeze damage extending below the cotyledons translates to complete death of the seedling.”

When scouting soybeans look for water-soaked lesions on cotyledons, leaves or hypocotyl that will dry and turn brown in a few days, according to the University of Minnesota. Firm, white tissue, cotyledons and growing points indicate the plant is recovering properly. Note: if a significant portion of the population is dead, you might need to replant.

The closer soybeans are to maturity, the less likely they are to suffer yield loss from frost or freeze, according to AgAnytime, by Monsanto. In very late frost situations narrow row spacing might trap heat and allow the plants to survive the cold better than wider rows.

The growing point of corn is underground until leaf four or five—this gives the crop some protection from freezing temperatures and allows it to recover easily. However, if temperatures are below 28° F for more than just a few hours it can penetrate the soil and cause damage.

If the corn plant is damaged, look for coleoptile and mesocotyl to be soft and brown—indicating dying or dead tissue, according to Corteva Pioneer. Even if leaves within the coleoptile survived, the likelihood of them emerging is low because the coleoptile won’t be able to protect them as they push to the surface.

Corn plants might also leaf out underground, dig to see how often this occurred. If the growing point tissue is damaged plants won’t recover. If corn suffers some damage but lives through it, look for it to be more susceptible to herbicide, disease, bacterial and other damage. Damage is more likely in corn when the seedling isn’t emerged.