(The Center Square) – Prohibiting hostile foreign governments such as China or Russia from purchasing farmland and property within 75 miles of a miliary installation has cleared a committee in the North Carolina House of Representatives.
N.C. Farmland and Military Protection Act, or House Bill 133, would bar governments designated by the U.S. State Department as hostile from “purchasing, acquiring, leasing or holding any interest in agricultural land or land situated within a 75-mile radius of a military installation.”
With approval Tuesday by the House Committee on Homeland Security and Military and Veterans Affairs, the bill now moves on to the House Commerce Committee and if approved there, to the Rules Committee before a vote on the House floor.
State Rep. Larry Potts, R-Davidson, voted for the bill but expressed concern over the 75-mile distance from military bases.
He described a scenario of a farmer whose children had moved away and didn’t want to take over the operation. He asked whether HB133 might make it harder for that farmer to sell his land.
“It just seems like a burden,” Potts said Tuesday. “That’s an hour and 20-minute drive by car at 60 miles an hour. I’m going to support the bill, but it just seems like a long way away.”
The 75-mile limit was based on a U.S. Defense Department recommendation, the bill’s sponsor Rep. Jennifer Balkcom, R-Henderson, told the committee Tuesday.
“If it was up to me, I’d do the entire state,” Balkcom said of the 75-mile limit.
The law does not apply to private citizens of countries designated as hostile, as long as they are not acting on behalf of their government, Balcom said.
The proposal would ensure “the state’s farmers are able to produce a safe, abundant, and affordable supply of food and fiber for the benefit of the people of this state and the United States and to protect our vital resources.”
North Carolina is No. 1 nationally each in all tobacco, flue-cured tobacco, sweet potatoes and poultry and eggs. The state is No. 2 in Christmas tree sales, production of turkeys, and food-size trout sold. It is No. 3 in cucumbers and hogs, No. 4 in peanuts and broilers (chicken), and No. 5 in cotton.
North Carolina has the fourth largest active-duty military population.
The state’s six major military bases include the U.S. Army’s Fort Bragg and Pope Air Force Base, both in the southeastern part of the state; Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in eastern North Carolina; and U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Camp Lejeune and MCAS New River along the coast, not more than an hour’s drive from the more inland MCAS Cherry Point. There are also two U.S. Coast Guard bases along the northern coast at Elizabeth City; and the Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point on the southern coast in Brunswick County.
