California GOP Leader Advances Bill to Ban Adversarial Foreign Control Over Farms
By Sam Barron | Wednesday, 18 February 2026 07:40 PM EST
Republican California State Senator Steven Choi introduced Senate Bill 1176, a measure that would prohibit adversarial foreign entities from purchasing, acquiring, leasing, or holding a controlling interest in California agricultural land.
The legislation would restrict ownership by businesses or governments originating from countries designated as nonmarket economies under federal law or identified as national security threats in the most recent Annual Threat Assessment issued by the U.S. Director of National Intelligence.
Countries currently on that list include Angola, Laos, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, China, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.
Under Choi’s bill, these entities would be barred from holding a controlling interest in California agricultural land and required to divest within 90 days, subject to judicial review.
A recent U.S. Department of Agriculture study found foreign entities owned more than 46 million acres of U.S. agricultural land in 2024, including 1,357,750 acres in California, with over 18% held by countries identified as national security threats.
“In an era of rising geopolitical tension, California must act to protect its agricultural land and critical infrastructure from adversarial control,” Choi stated. “This bill ensures that our farmland remains under the control of the United States and its allies.”
A similar measure introduced in 2022—Senate Bill 1084, the Food and Farm Security Act—aimed to ban all foreign ownership of agricultural land in California and mandate reporting by the California Department of Agriculture on foreign holdings. That bill was vetoed by Governor Gavin Newsom.
