DYSART, Iowa (NewsNation) — The House Select Committee on China will hold a bipartisan field hearing Thursday regarding the Chinese Communist Party’s theft of U.S. agricultural technology from America’s farms.
Balancing a trade relationship with China and safeguarding national security create a complex challenge for U.S. lawmakers who are set to address instances of the CCP appropriating agricultural technology and outline measures for accountability.
The hearing will spotlight the 2012 arrests of Chinese nationals for stealing patented seeds from Iowa farms. It’s a single instance of China’s alleged interference in U.S. agricultural advances.
Chinese businesses have purchased U.S. farmlands in North Dakota, California, and Michigan, which many lawmakers deem a significant national security concern.
During Thursday’s hearing, the committee will also host a roundtable to hear from farmers like Louie Zumbach, who told NewsNation that such tactics negatively affect people like him.
Five generations of Zumbach’s family have worked on their Iowa farm, but they face a new concern they’ve never faced before: rights to their agricultural technology from the Chinese Communist Party.
“Every farmer that plants a seed that has been genetically modified is paying a tech fee,” Zumbach said. “So, when they steal that and they use all that technology for nothing they are stealing from every Iowa farmer and every farmer in America that’s using that type of technology.”
Chinese investors own about .03 percent of America’s farmland, according to federal data. But their land purchasing is becoming a major issue as politicians at the state and federal level ramp up their fight against perceived threats from China.
“I suppose if they get enough ground, then they will be able to really manipulate the market,” Zumbach said. “I don’t know what their endgame is other than to be in complete control.”
In the past couple of months, lawmakers in more than two dozen states have passed or considered legislation restricting Chinese purchases of U.S. farmland.