Protecting American Agricultural Sovereignty

Section 1. Purpose and Findings

The order declares the American family farm to be a foundational institution of the Republic: food-production infrastructure, cultural heritage, and sovereign capacity. It treats the systematic destruction of that base as a threat to the national interest rather than a routine development side effect.

The findings state that the United States loses roughly 2,000 acres of agricultural land per day, that private-equity and institutional-investor control of food-producing land is structurally misaligned with honest food production, and that foreign state-linked ownership of agricultural land presents a direct national-food-security vulnerability.

The same opening section also finds that eminent domain has been abused, often with federal funding, to seize active food-producing land for projects serving private commercial interests, and that the federal government has both the authority and the obligation to condition money, approvals, and certifications on stronger agricultural-sovereignty standards.

Section 2. Definitions

• Agricultural Land includes parcels actively used for crops, livestock, or other food-production purposes, and land used for those purposes within the preceding five years unless converted to a non-agricultural use.
• Active Food-Producing Operation means land currently producing food crops or livestock in the ordinary course of agricultural business.
• Private Equity Entity includes private-equity firms, hedge funds, venture-capital funds, institutional investors, REITs, and similar vehicles whose primary purpose is investor return rather than agricultural production.
• Foreign State-Linked Entity includes sovereign wealth funds, state-owned enterprises, foreign government-controlled corporations, and other structures in which a foreign government holds at least a five percent ownership or controlling interest, or exercises operational influence.
• Private Foreign Investors are expressly distinguished from foreign state-linked entities and remain welcome participants subject to transparency rules.
• Just Agricultural Compensation is defined around the highest comparable sale of the same agricultural class within fifty miles during the preceding five years, based on independent federal appraisal.

Sections 3 and 4. Ownership Restrictions on Farmland

Section 3 bars private-equity entities from acquiring, holding, leasing, operating, or controlling active food-producing operations and requires divestiture of existing holdings within three years. The order prioritizes return of land first to the original family or individual, then to neighboring family farmers, and then to the relevant state agricultural land trust or equivalent authority.

Section 4 immediately prohibits foreign state-linked entities from acquiring interests in American agricultural land and requires existing holdings to be fully divested within two years. The order frames this not as hostility toward any nation but as a basic sovereign obligation to keep control of the land that feeds the country in domestic hands.

The foreign-state-linked section also imposes due-process protections when the government alleges operational influence below the five percent threshold and directs CFIUS to treat proposed acquisitions of agricultural land by foreign state-linked entities as presumptive national-security threats requiring mandatory review.

Sections 5 through 7. Compensation, Eminent Domain, and FAA Review

Section 5 establishes the Agricultural Land Repatriation Compensation Fund inside the Treasury to ensure that foreign state-linked entities required to divest do not suffer uncompensated loss. The fund provides independently appraised fair market value plus a ten percent goodwill payment and also supports low-interest transition loans for American buyers, prioritizing family farmers and land trusts.

Section 6 bars federal agricultural infrastructure funds from supporting projects that use eminent domain against active food-producing operations unless the project meets a public-necessity standard, pays just agricultural compensation, completes an agricultural-impact assessment, provides the independent appraisal to the landowner, and gives at least 180 days of written notice before any physical alteration of the property.

Section 7 directs the FAA to impose a moratorium on approval, certification, and funding for airport projects requiring agricultural takings through eminent domain until the order's review procedures are satisfied. It also specifically orders the Attorney General to review the Spalding County Airport takings and report whether constitutional enforcement action is warranted.

Sections 8 and 9. Top Tier Organic Production and Food Safety

Section 8 orders USDA, HHS, and EPA to establish a Top Tier Organic Production and Care Standard covering soil health, animal welfare, input transparency, labor and community conditions, and third-party certification for all agricultural operations on United States soil.

The standard prohibits synthetic fertilizers, sewage sludge, GMOs, routine preventive antibiotics, growth hormones, glyphosate, neonicotinoids, and other persistent synthetic pesticides while requiring crop rotation, cover cropping, humane slaughter protocols, fair wages, and annual certification with spot checks.

Section 9 complements that standard with a food-safety audit of chemical additives, preservatives, and processing agents, proposes restrictions on medically important antibiotic overuse in livestock, and requires primary-label disclosure of additives and of whether the producing operation is controlled by a private-equity or foreign state-linked entity.

Sections 10 through 11E. Registry, Food Sovereignty, and National Review

Section 10 creates a two-tier National Agricultural Land Registry with a public layer for transparency and research and a classified layer for precise geolocation data on foreign state-linked holdings. It also requires the registry to track eminent-domain actions affecting agricultural land, including acreage taken, production displaced, compensation paid, appraisal results, associated federal funds, and the later use of the land.

Sections 11 and 11A declare domestic agricultural land to be a national-security asset and require a National Food Sovereignty Strategy plus a comprehensive national review of ownership, conversion, concentration, private-equity extraction, infrastructure development, eminent-domain activity, and foreign state-linked investment patterns that may create vulnerabilities for food security and sovereign independence.

Sections 11B through 11E establish an Agricultural Land and Food Security Task Force, declare a national policy of geographically distributed and resilient domestic food production, require disclosure whenever federally funded infrastructure permanently converts agricultural land, and mandate a National Agricultural Sovereignty Report to the American people within one year.

Sections 12 through 14. Enforcement and General Provisions

Section 12 creates a dedicated Agricultural Land and Eminent Domain Enforcement Unit within the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice to investigate inadequate compensation complaints, pursue civil enforcement on behalf of affected landowners, review pending federally connected takings, and publish annual reports.

Section 13 places USDA in the lead coordination role and requires quarterly interagency Agricultural Sovereignty Task Force reporting across Justice, Transportation, Defense, Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, Treasury, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Section 14 preserves the constitutional authority of the United States to use eminent domain for genuine public purposes meeting the order's standard, clarifies that private foreign investors remain able to participate subject to transparency rules, and includes standard severability and lawful-implementation clauses.