Northwest Wisconsin Legislators Introducing Farm Protection Bill

Two Northwest Wisconsin Republican state legislators are circulating a bill to curb foreign ownership of farmland in the state.

State Representative Clint Moses of Menomonie and State Senator Rob Stafsholt of New Richmond are proposing the legislation, dubbed the Wisconsin Farmland Protection Act. According to a WQOW report, the bill would restrict foreign entities from owning more than 50 acres of farmland in the state. It would also ban Russia and China from owning any land within ten miles of a military installation.

The legislation is similar to a bipartisan bill proposed by Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin and Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley. That legislation would create a framework for monitoring land purchases by foreign entities and train United States Department of Agriculture workers on identifying those purchases.

Under the legislation proposed at the state level, foreign entities who currently own more than 50 acres of land in the state would have 18 months to divest. A 2023 USDA report found that about 2.6% of Wisconsin’s agricultural land is owned by foreign entities, accounting for nearly 45 million acres in total.

Agriculture has become a hot topic in Northwest Wisconsin in recent months. In February, local representatives held a town hall with the Wisconsin Farmers Union in Chippewa Falls to discuss the uncertainty surrounding and potential impacts of proposed tariffs.

Plans to add nearly 5,000 cows to a concentrated animal feeding operation in Pierce County also recently hit a roadblock amid community pushback. That project had previously received needed permit approvals from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.