USDA's Farm Service Agency reports that through Feb. 28, 2009, 22.2 million acres of U.S. agricultural land was owned in part by foreign persons. That's an increase of 1.3 million acres from 2008.
The annual FSA report shows that foreign persons have an interest in 1.7% of all privately held U.S. agricultural land and 0.98% of all land in the United States.
According to the report, 59% of all U.S. forestland has some foreign ownership. Fourteen percent of the cropland, and 27% of pasture and other agricultural land also have some foreign ownership.
About one-third of that land is owned in part by Canadians. Thirty percent of the owners are from the Netherlands, the United Kingdom or Germany.
The states with the highest proportions of foreign-owned agricultural land to all privately owned agricultural land are Maine, Hawaii, Washington, Nevada and Alabama.
