To the editor:
A television ad for Sherrod Brown showed him standing in a field while he talks about Ohio land being purchased by other countries and how he co-signed a bipartisan bill.
He never does anything that the Democrat Party does not approve, so I looked up: U.S. farm lands purchased by China.
This is information from two different sources: Sabrina Easton, The Plain Dealer (Cleveland.com) Feb. 2 and Tori Smith, American Action Forum, March 16, 2023.
The headline for the Eaton article: Foreign entities more than 500,000 acres of farmland in Ohio. Sherrod Brown seeks crackdown on outside ownership.
The bill he is co-sponsoring would "bolster an existing law." The article states that Canada purchased land for forestry, and Germany and the Netherlands for wind and solar. This includes any near U.S. defense installations, including Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, the Youngstown Air Reserve Station and Camp Perry near Port Clinton. Brown's office says USDA data from December 2021 shows foreign investors own approximately 40.8 million acres.
The Smith article lists the Top 10 Foreign owners by Acres of U.S. Agricultural Land in 2011. The list: Canada, the Netherlands, Italy, the United Kingdom, Germany, Portugal, France, Denmark, Luxembourg and Ireland. The Top 10 Foreign owned by land value in 2021 included Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, Portugal, France, Japan, Sweden and China.
A chart that referred to Chinese ownership of U.S. agricultural land in acres for the period of 2011-2021 shows an increased purchase in late 2021 -- after COVID and during the Biden presidency.
The selling of our country began in 2011, during the Obama presidency.
He is a Democrat hack.Again, Sherrod Brown, who was first elected in 2006 as our eyes and ears for our interest, has failed the United States miserably.
Merica Petrella
Steubenville