The USDA’s National Farm Security Action Plan is a broad federal policy framework, not a nationwide ban on foreign ownership of U.S. farmland. Announced July 8, 2025, it sets out work on farmland reporting, agricultural supply chains, nutrition-program integrity, research security, USDA programs, biosecurity, and cybersecurity. USDA later reported taking several steps, but its December 2025 notice on farmland reporting was an advance notice seeking public input—not a final rule.
What is the National Farm Security Action Plan?
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the plan on July 8, 2025, alongside the heads of the departments of Defense, Justice, and Homeland Security. It treats threats to food production and distribution as national-security and domestic-resilience concerns, noting that the food and agriculture sector is designated critical infrastructure.
The plan sets three broad goals: promote agricultural and economic prosperity, defend the foundations of agriculture and food, and strengthen domestic agricultural productivity. To explain the sector’s importance, USDA’s 2025 plan says agriculture, food, and related trades employ more than one in ten American workers and contribute over $1.5 trillion in annual GDP. Those are figures cited by the plan, not independent measures of the action plan’s effects.
What are the plan’s seven policy areas?
1. Farmland ownership and investment reporting
USDA proposed modernizing reporting under the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (AFIDA), improving the usefulness and timeliness of ownership data, and increasing penalties for late or knowingly false reports. The plan also calls for working with states and Congress on ending direct or indirect farmland purchases or control by nationals of countries of concern or other foreign adversaries. It proposes regular USDA–Treasury coordination on certain foreign transactions involving farmland, agricultural businesses, biotechnology, and the agriculture industry.
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2. Agricultural supply-chain resilience
The plan calls for identifying critical agricultural inputs, finding vulnerabilities in their production, storage, and transportation, and using crisis simulations to prepare for disruptions. Inputs named include fertilizers, chemicals, minerals, vitamins, and materials used in military defense systems. USDA also proposed reviewing import restrictions to reduce risks from dangerous biological agents, pests, and diseases.
3. Integrity of nutrition programs
Proposed measures include stronger program-integrity controls and enforcement, action against benefit trafficking, and disqualifying retailers complicit in SNAP fraud. The plan also calls for coordination to prevent USDA nutrition-program funds from supporting terrorism or criminal activity. These are USDA’s stated concerns and policy aims; the plan’s assertions about criminal abuse should not be read as independently quantified findings.
4. Security in federally funded agricultural research
USDA proposed requiring recipients of its funding to certify that key participants are not owned or controlled by foreign adversaries, are not part of malign foreign talent-recruitment programs, and disclose gifts and contracts from countries of concern or other foreign adversaries.
5. Reviews of USDA programs
The plan names the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs, along with BioPreferred. It proposes greater due diligence, reviews of agreements, and possible withdrawal of BioPreferred certification from entities in countries of concern. It also calls for prioritizing U.S.-based research, technology, and innovation, subject to statutory and strategic exceptions.
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6. Plant and animal health
The plan calls for stronger detection and response to biological threats and research focused on disease prevention or mitigation. Examples it names include citrus greening, rusts, blights, highly pathogenic avian influenza, African swine fever, foot-and-mouth disease, New World screwworm, and spotted lanternfly.
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7. Cybersecurity for critical infrastructure
USDA proposed working with private companies and the Food and Agriculture Information Sharing and Analysis Center to help agricultural organizations access cybersecurity and ransomware-protection resources. It also calls for coordination with intelligence and law-enforcement partners.
Does the plan ban foreign ownership of U.S. farmland?
No. The plan expresses a goal of ending certain purchases or control by nationals of countries of concern or other foreign adversaries, and calls for cooperation with state and congressional partners. The plan itself does not establish a blanket nationwide prohibition on foreign ownership. Its farmland proposals must also be distinguished from AFIDA, the existing federal reporting framework.
What AFIDA currently requires
AFIDA, enacted in 1978, requires foreign persons who acquire, transfer, or hold interests in U.S. agricultural land to report those holdings and transactions to USDA. USDA’s December 2025 notice described the rules as covering direct interests and some indirect interests that meet “significant interest or substantial control” thresholds.
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What USDA proposed to examine
On December 29, 2025, USDA published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking to invite public input on possible AFIDA changes. The notice discussed concerns about timely data sharing, the specificity of parcel information, and visibility into complex ownership chains. It asked for comments on matters including the scope of reporting, who must file, geographic detail, and indirect owners. The comment deadline was January 28, 2026.
An advance notice is an information-gathering step, not a final regulation. It did not, by itself, make revised reporting requirements binding. The notice cited USDA Farm Service Agency data showing that reported foreign holdings of U.S. agricultural land increased by an average of 0.6 million acres per year from 2013 to 2017 and 2.6 million acres per year from 2017 to 2023. These are average annual increases over the stated periods, not total foreign-held acreage or figures for any one country.
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What has USDA reported doing since the announcement?
The milestones below distinguish the existing reporting requirement, a proposed rulemaking step, and actions USDA says it took. USDA’s latest implementation update verified here is dated February 11, 2026; it does not establish the status of every action as of October 2026.
| Date or status | Action | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Existing law and rules | AFIDA reporting applies to covered foreign persons and interests in agricultural land. | This is the existing reporting framework, not a new prohibition created by the action plan. |
| December 29, 2025 | USDA published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking on AFIDA. | The notice requested input on possible future changes; it was not a final rule. |
| February 11, 2026 | USDA described implementation activities and plans in a department update. | These are actions USDA reported, not independent evidence that the measures have reduced security risks. |
Map, reporting portal, and Treasury coordination
On July 10, 2025, USDA said it had released a Foreign Farm Land Purchases map searchable by country and launched a portal for reporting possible AFIDA violations. USDA cautioned that the map located holdings by county, not by parcel boundaries, and said it intended to improve the data’s timeliness and precision. The portal was also described as accepting reports about alleged adversarial foreign influence on policymakers related to farmland purchases and agricultural supply-chain business dealings; people could submit anonymously or provide contact information for follow-up.
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Research security and the Department of War partnership
In its February 11, 2026 update, USDA said it was developing an enhanced online AFIDA filing system, had published the advance notice, and had launched the public reporting portal. The department also reported work across government on critical fertilizer inputs; changes to some arrangements involving contractors and visiting scientists who were citizens of countries of concern; development of research priorities; standardized terms for grants and cooperative agreements; and restrictions on specified USDA program benefits.
USDA said Secretary Brooke L. Rollins and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth had signed a memorandum of understanding to coordinate implementation. The first action under it was a partnership between the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and USDA’s Office of the Chief Scientist to share information about agricultural-security vulnerabilities, develop technological solutions, and exchange personnel. USDA also announced the Office of Research, Economic, and Science Security to coordinate research security across its intramural and extramural research. USDA describes the office’s work as including protection of research and technology from undue foreign influence, training and policy resources, and guidance for domestic and international collaborations.
What should farmland owners, investors, researchers, and program participants take from this?
- For foreign investors and landholders: The plan’s announcement did not replace existing AFIDA duties. A person with a potentially reportable interest should assess the current rules and applicable filing obligations rather than assume the proposed revisions are already in force.
- For readers using USDA’s map: County-level location is not parcel-boundary information. The map can help show where reported holdings are located at a broad geographic level, but it should not be treated as a precise parcel viewer.
- For researchers and grant recipients: USDA described new or standardized terms and research-security work, but the exact requirements depend on the applicable program, award, and terms. The plan’s proposed certifications should not be mistaken for universal requirements unless they have been implemented for the relevant funding.
- For agricultural businesses: The supply-chain and cybersecurity sections point to a wider security agenda than land transactions alone, including inputs, logistics, disease risks, and ransomware preparedness.
USDA’s 2025 plan frames the sector’s scale as a reason for action; its 2026 update records activities the department says it undertook. Neither establishes, on its own, a measured reduction in security risks. The plan’s importance is therefore best understood as a broad policy agenda whose proposals, implementation steps, and outcomes need to be kept distinct.
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