By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
Banning foreign adversaries from owning Missouri farmland is being brought before the legislature for a second year.
State Senator Rusty Black of Chillicothe says it became an issue in the 2022 US Senate campaign in Missouri.
"The second part on making decisions also is of course national security or security of important assets included in our state, you know our military assets as well as other infrastructure assets," Black tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post.
Black says the concern is that businesses and individual from countries considered adversarial to the United States, such as China and North Korea, might buy farmland near those military facilities.
Earlier this year, Missouri Governor Mike Parson signed an executive order banning those adversaries from purchasing farmland within a 10-mile radius of critical military facilities.
Black says enforcement of the law would align with an executive order issued by Governor Mike Parson in January.
"Then within the law, if we end up with a law similar to what the executive order is, within that it can force the divestiture of that property that was purchased," Black explains.
Black says the executive order is a step in the right direction, but it now needs to become law.
"What the governor did, certainly don't think I'm talking bad about it, but then we need to make sure that we come up with what we believe is best for our state and pass that into law so that we can consider it more permanent," Black says.
Black says a discussion in the legislature has been what should be determined as critical infrastructure, citing one example as Smithfield Foods being near the Trenton armory.
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