(Missourinet) – The race for governor is heating up with a hot-button topic being foreign ownership of agricultural land. During a Missouri Farm Bureau candidate forum, Republican candidate, state Senator Bill Eigel, accused China of manipulating their currency to drive the market value of Missouri farmland.
“In fact, it’s not just China that does this. The World Economic Forum is out there trying to get their hands in control of their food supply. That’s why I’m an advocate for not only restricting the sale of Missouri farmland to any foreign entity or country, I’ve also filed a constitutional amendment this week that would require divesture of the foreign land that’s already owned by foreign entities here in the state of Missouri.”
Eigel faces Lieutenant Governor Mike Kehoe and Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft in the Republican Primary next August.
Democrat Crystal Quade said it’s an issue that needs to be addressed.
“I know where I’m from, I have a lot of multigeneration farmers who lived right next door to me and, you know, wanted their grandkids to be on the same land farming that land and I think it’s important that as a state government, we really are looking at who controls access to our food.”
Republican candidate Jay Ashcroft, Missouri’s Secretary of State, said that Missouri needs to take a stand against China building up land around military installations. Ashcroft helped to craft legislation that, ultimately, failed to become law. He said his bill would have protected Missouri’s agriculture industry.
“Food security is national security. We’ve seen problems with countries like China building up land around military installations and otherwise, we need to take a stand against that. So, we had a bill that would do that, passed by the house. Unfortunately, the senate…they did the senate stuff to it, I’ll just leave it at that.”
Fellow Republicans, Senator Bill Eigel is staunchly against foreign ownership of farmland while Lieutenant Governor Mike Kehoe was not asked his stance at the forum.
