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Missouri lawmakers back ban on Chinese ownership of land
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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri House voted Thursday to ban entities from China and four other perceived adversarial countries from purchasing land in the state, citing a need to protect farms from the possibility of falling under hostile control.
The Missouri legislation, which now heads to the Senate, is one of several similar bills moving through state capitols this year amid international tensions that were peaked by the trek of a Chinese balloon across the U.S.
“The balloon was just over this Capitol” in February, Missouri House Speaker Dean Plocher said Thursday. “We have to protect Missouri sovereignty, and we have to protect Missouri farmers, and I think we need to protect our food supply.”
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In addition to targeting foreign property ownership in the U.S., many states and the federal government recently have banned the popular social media app TikTok from government devices amid fears that its Chinese-owned parent company could provide data about users to the Chinese government.
Missouri is one of 14 states that already restrict foreign ownership of agricultural land. The new legislation would lower the cap on foreign ownership from 1% to 0.5% of all agricultural land in the state.
It also would ban the purchase of any additional land by entities from China, Iran, North Korea, Russia and Venezuela, effective Aug. 28. Of those, China is the only country currently connected to the ownership of Missouri farmland.
Chinese entities owned 42,596 acres (172 square kilometers) of Missouri agricultural land as of 2021 — just a little under half of the roughly 100,000 agricultural acres (404 square kilometers) owned by all foreign entities, according to the Missouri Department of Agriculture. Much of that land is used for corporate hog farms in northern Missouri and owned by a Chinese conglomerate that purchased Smithfield Foods Inc. in 2013.
The effort to restrict foreign land ownership gained momentum in Missouri after then-Attorney General Eric Schmitt, a Republican, was portrayed by Democratic opponents in last year’s U.S. Senate campaign as a Chinese sympathizer for voting to allow limited foreign ownership of farmland when he was a state senator in 2013. Schmitt ultimately won election to the U.S. Senate.
The Missouri measure has been opposed by lobbyist groups for businesses, real estate agents and pork producers.
“We don’t think it’s the place of government to get involved in private business transactions,” Sam Licklider, chief lobbyist for the Missouri Realtors, said during a committee hearing this year.
Foreign ownership of U.S. agricultural land rose significantly in the past decade — from less than 26 million acres (105,219 square kilometers) in 2011 to more than 40 million acres (161,874 square kilometers) in 2021, or 3.1% of all privately held agricultural land, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The federal agriculture agency uses a broader definition of foreign ownership of agricultural land than Missouri. It says foreign investors held about 433,000 acres (1,752 square kilometers) of agricultural land in Missouri in 2021, about 1.2% of all privately held agricultural land.
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JEFFERSON COUNTY, Mo. – Two people are behind bars after a man reportedly attacked a Jefferson County deputy with a screwdriver during an attempted arrest over the weekend.
Prosecutors have charged Nicholas Davis, 47, and Amanda Davis, 45, of Dittmer, Missouri, with felonies in the investigation.
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The alleged attack followed a traffic stop of a driver in the 9500 block of Jones Creek Road on July 7, though the driver was not Nicholas or Amanda.
According to court documents obtained by FOX 2, Nicholas reportedly came out of his nearby home, yelled at a deputy and started approaching him while holding a screwdriver. The deputy initially ordered Nicholas to back away, then used pepper spray.
Per court documents, the deputy attempted to arrest Nicholas, who then struck him in the chest with the screwdriver. Amanda reportedly approached the deputy and pulled him away from Nicholas before both ran inside their home.
The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office says the situation prompted an hours-long standoff involving negotiators, a SWAT team and a K-9 deputy. The situation led to Nicholas refusing warnings and being bitten by a K-9.
Nicholas and Amanda are both jailed in the Jefferson County Jail without bond. Nicholas is charged with first-degree assault on a special victim and armed criminal action. Amanda is charged with resisting/interfering with arrest.
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ST. LOUIS — The new St. Louis schools superintendent will be officially sworn into office today. Dr. Keisha Scarlett took over the job in July after the retirement of Dr. Kelvin Adams. She was assistant superintendent in the Seattle Public School District. The installation ceremony is at 6:15 p.m. before the regular school board meeting.
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ST. LOUIS — A gasoline tanker truck crashed into a Metro transit center near Riverview and Hall Streets early Tuesday morning and knocked over a power pole. The pole is leaning on other power lines. Police have the area blocked off here because there is a downed power line. Ameren and Metro crews are also on the scene.
The incident happened around 12:30 a.m. It’s still unclear exactly what caused the crash, but we do that there was a second vehicle somehow involved. The airbags on that second vehicle did deploy.
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Police at the scene have not been able to give us a lot of details. Metro officials tell FOX 2 that the transit center here is operating this morning for passengers and buses. Access to certain areas will be limited here as clean up unfolds.
A Metro spokesperson says half of the station isn’t being used right now because of safety issues. It isn’t impacting overall bus operations, everything is just happening on the other side of transit center.
The extent of the damage to the actual transit center is still unclear, but I’m told it does not appear to be extreme. A Metro spokesperson tells me there were no injuries to any metro workers or passengers. The tanker driver also was not injured.
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