Foreigners own nearly 1.9 MILLION acres of Michigan — 8.8% of agricultural land!

At least 3,000 square miles of the state now under the con­trol of nonci­t­i­zens, accord­ing to a report in The Mid­west­ern­er:

Data from a USDA report on For­eign Hold­ings of U.S. Agri­cul­tur­al Land released this month shows for­eign own­ers now hold 1,893,744 acres in the Great Lakes State, which equates to 5% of the entire state or 8.8% of Michigan’s pri­vate­ly held agri­cul­tur­al land.

The fig­ure, which counts acres owned by nonci­t­i­zens or U.S. com­pa­nies with a “sig­nif­i­cant for­eign inter­est” through Dec. 31, 2024, is an increas­es of 71,697 acres over the year pri­or, and “more than dou­ble the acreage report­ed a decade ago,” accord­ing to MLive.

In terms of total acreage, Michi­gan ranks sixth nation­al­ly, behind Okla­homa, Alaba­ma, Col­orado, Maine, and Texas, though the state ranks third for per­cent­age of pri­vate agri­cul­tur­al land owned by for­eign­ers.

Only Hawaii at 17.1% and Maine at 21.3% have more for­eign-owned agri­cul­tur­al land than Michi­gan.

Read the full sto­ry at The Mid­west­ern­er.