(The Center Square) – Not a single member of the North Carolina House of Representatives opposed a prohibition of hostile foreign governments such as China or Russia from purchasing farmland and property within 75 miles of a miliary installation.
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.” Passage in the chamber on Wednesday afternoon was 111-0.
Brian Balfour, senior vice president of research at the liberty and limited, constitutional government-minded John Locke Foundation, said the legislation is common sense and critical to national security.
“North Carolina farmland should not be for sale to foreign governments who have been buying up land across the U.S. near military installations, raising suspicion,” Balfour wrote in an email to The Center Square shortly after the bill passage. “North Carolina is home to both a sizeable agriculture industry and military presence, and makes for a prime target for hostile foreign governments. House Bill 133 would take a significant step toward insulating North Carolina’s important military bases from potential spying eyes.”
The 75-mile limit was based on a U.S. Defense Department recommendation, the bill’s sponsor Rep. Jennifer Balkcom, R-Henderson, said during a meeting earlier of the Committee on Homeland Security and Military and Veterans Affairs.
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.
