U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, is working to end the Wall Street buy-up of farmland across the nation. Today, Booker reintroduced the Farmland for Farmers Act, legislation that would limit corporate ownership of farmland in the United States. If passed, this legislation would ensure that farmland is in the hands of working farmers. Farmland ownership has long been a foundation of economic stability in rural America, but increasing purchases of agricultural land by corporate investors have contributed to financial pressure on family farmers and economic decline in rural communities. Institutional investment in farmland has grown significantly over the past two decades, rising from under $2 billion in 2005 to more than $16 billion in 2025. U.S. Representative Jill N. Tokuda (HI-02) has introduced companion legislation in the House of Representatives.
"It is fundamentally unacceptable that Wall Street investors and hedge funds are buying up millions of acres of American soil, treating our farmland like just another tradable asset in a corporate portfolio,” said Senator Booker. “This rampant speculation is driving land prices sky-high and making it nearly impossible for a new generation who want to start farming to access the land they need. When corporations treat agriculture as a line item to boost their profit margins, they hollow out the rural communities that rely on family farms to survive and thrive. Our farmland is not a commodity for Wall Street to exploit; it is the heritage and lifeblood of rural America. By reintroducing the Farmland for Farmers Act, we are working to stop this corporate land grab and ensure that the future of our food system belongs to the people who actually work the land."
"For generations, our farmers and ranchers have served as the backbone of Hawai?i’s economy, but today they are being pushed to the breaking point. We are seeing a dangerous trend where agricultural land is auctioned off as a corporate investment, directly threatening food security and pricing the next generation of farmers out of their own communities,” said Representative Tokuda. “I have heard firsthand from producers who are being outbid for the very soil that has yielded staple crops for decades. The Farmland for Farmers Act draws a line in the sand and seeks to stop this corporate land grab in its tracks."
"Farmers — especially farmers of color and young and beginning farmers — across the US have seen a crisis involving institutional and corporate buyouts, exacerbating unfair land access and prices," said Tiffany Bellfield El-Amin, Board Co-President of the National Family Farm Coalition and Executive Director of Kentucky Black Farmers Association. "They prey on struggling farmers and their communities to exploit the land for uses that neither serve nor feed the community, nor employ its residents. Resources are limited and often gatekept due to these corporate buyouts -- we must prevent institutional buyers from using resources that farmers rely on for their livelihoods. The Farmland for Farmers Act does more than protect access to farmland; it protects land prices and sustainability which farmers need to continue feeding our families and communities."
Source : senate.gov