MON AM News: Study: bills to curb foreign land ownership popular in many states, including Wisconsin; State authorizes up to $18M in tax credits for Yaskawa America, Inc. expansion

June 16, 2025

— As Wisconsin lawmakers debate competing approaches to restricting foreign ownership of land, a new study finds similar bills elsewhere are more likely in states with Republican legislative majorities, military installations and more foreign-owned cropland.

Michigan State University recently published research findings focused on legislation being introduced across the country to restrict foreign ownership of agricultural land. It assessed 143 bills recently introduced across 34 states, including Wisconsin, as well as actions of more than 6,700 state lawmakers.

In Wisconsin, Republican lawmakers have proposed two dueling approaches to restricting foreign ownership of land in the state. Current state law allows a foreign person or corporation to own up to 640 acres of land with certain exceptions.

The study found states where both chambers of the Legislature have a Republican majority, like Wisconsin, are more likely to see bills proposed to restrict foreign holdings of agricultural land. And the likelihood that such a bill will be proposed in a given state increases by 2% with an additional military installation, researchers found.

They also found that when the ratio of foreign-owned cropland to local private agricultural land rises by 1% in a state, the likelihood of a foreign land ownership restriction bill being proposed rises by 6%.

In Wisconsin, the ratio of foreign held agricultural land to privately held agricultural land was 2.6% at the end of 2023, a USDA report shows. Total foreign held acreage in the state was about 626,000 at that point, compared to nearly 24 million in privately held acres.

Republican legislative control and military installations are also “significant factors” influencing the likelihood of the bills passing, according to the study. If a state has GOP majorities in both chambers, it’s 18% more likely to have its bill passed, while an additional military installation increases that chance by 3%. Each 1% increase in a state’s agricultural GDP share raises it by 7%.

Meanwhile, a 1% increase in Chinese holdings of agricultural land raises the likelihood of state bill passage by 1%, the study shows. And if a state is a net exporter of ag products to China, it’s 21% less likely to pass a foreign land ownership restriction bill.

“This result highlights the importance of the Chinese market for U.S. agricultural products and suggests that states gaining economic benefits from exporting agricultural products to China would be less likely to pass legislation that could deteriorate their relationship with the country,” authors wrote.

Wisconsin last year exported $333 million in agricultural products to China, its third-largest market for these products after Canada and Mexico. That’s an increase of 3.2% from 2023, a DATCP overview shows.

Foreign entities hold 3.5 percent of privately owned U.S. agricultural land, according to the study, which has prompted increased attention from lawmakers. More than 20 states have established some limits on foreign ownership of farmland, with some targeting specific adversarial countries such as China and others restricting it more broadly.

David Ortega, a professor and chair in food economics and policy at the university, says the study’s goal was to understand what’s driving the “surge” in state-level legislative proposals.

“While many of these proposals are framed around safeguarding agricultural land, our analysis finds that broader geopolitical concerns and the current political climate are shaping how legislators respond,” he said in a release on the study results.

GOP Sen. André Jacque of New Franken, one of the Wisconsin bill authors, says he appreciates the “growing attention to the issue of foreign land ownership” by adversarial nations. In an emailed statement, he noted two Chinese nationals were recently arrested for smuggling a fungus into the United States that’s been linked to “agroterrorism and devastating crop loss,” arguing this underscores the threat.

“This is not theoretical,” he said. “These are active risks to our domestic food systems, and Wisconsin cannot afford to be complacent.”

One bill, SB 219, would reduce the maximum amount of agricultural land that a foreign person can own to 50 acres. It would give those currently above that limit three years to divest themselves any excess land, one year less than under current law. And it would ban the sale of any real property to federally designated foreign adversaries.

The legislation was co-authored by Sen. Rob Stafsholt, R-New Richmond, and Rep. Clint Moses, R-Menomonie, who testified earlier this month before the Senate Agriculture and Revenue Committee on their bill. In a joint statement to WisBusiness.com, the lawmakers said their bill was authored following conversations with Wisconsin farmers and others who are concerned about this issue.

“We fundamentally do not think Wisconsin farmland needs to be owned by foreign entities,” they wrote in an email.

At the same committee meeting, Jacque discussed his own bill, SB 7, which he said would draw “a necessary line” to protect critical state resources from hostile regimes. It was modeled on a Virginia law that was passed with bipartisan support, he noted.

Under a substitute amendment added to the bill, the legislation would bar a principal of a foreign adversary from acquiring, owning or holding any interest in real property in the state. It would define a foreign adversary as any identified by the U.S. Commerce Department, whose list currently includes China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia and Venezuela.

Jacque says his approach isn’t a “blanket restriction” on international investment, noting it specifically targets land purchases by adversaries working against U.S. interests. As current statute doesn’t make such a distinction, he argues the bill would close a “dangerous loophole.”

See the full story here.

— The state has authorized up to $18 million in tax credits for Yaskawa America Inc. as it moves its North American headquarters from Illinois to Wisconsin.

State officials on Friday announced the technology manufacturer plans to put $180 million into an expansion of its existing Franklin facility. Once complete, the 800,000-square-foot campus will include the new headquarters, manufacturing and packaging facilities, robotics and semiconductor production and a lab building.

In a statement on the move, Gov. Tony Evers says the expansion project will bring hundreds of jobs to southeastern Wisconsin.

“Companies from across the globe are choosing Wisconsin to grow and expand because they know we have the best workers making the best products,” he said.

State support for the project will come in the form of performance-based tax credits provided through the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., the announcement shows. The company can earn these credits by creating jobs and investing capital in the state during the project period.

Mike Knapek, CEO of Yaskawa America Inc., says the expansion in Franklin will unify all of its drives and motion division’s existing manufacturing and office locations in Wisconsin and Illinois. Its previous headquarters was in Waukegan, Ill.

“We take pride in our cutting-edge technology, our commitment to quality, and our world-class manufacturing, and we look forward to a strong future of growth and innovation in Franklin,” Knapek said.

Parent company Yaskawa Electric Corporation, based in Japan, is marking its 110th anniversary this year. Yaskawa America Inc., its domestic subsidiary, has been doing business in the United States for 58 years, according to the announcement. The business makes industrial robots, motion control products and solar inverters, a key component for solar energy systems.

The company says it plans to begin producing robots in Franklin that will be shipped directly to customers, or used in production lines at its facilities in Ohio.

See more in the release.

— The state’s Focus on Energy program is touting its economic impact after a recent study found it generates $4.17 in benefits for every $1 in funding.

Summer Strand, chair of the Public Service Commission, says independent evaluations like the latest covering 2024 prove the program “is a strong, cost-effective public investment” with a good return on investment.

“The Focus program reduces energy usage, lowers costs, supports clean energy development, and strengthens communities statewide, providing significant value and measurable benefits to our state,” she said.

Focus on Energy helps eligible state residents and businesses install energy efficiency and renewable energy products, and is funded by Wisconsin’s investor-owned utilities and participating municipal and electric cooperative utilities.

Last year, more than 175,000 residents and companies had installations supported by the program, including new solar arrays, insulation and air sealing, smart thermostats and “large scale” industrial energy efficiency projects. These projects are collectively saving enough energy to power more than 600,000 homes for a year, according to the assessment.

See the release.

— The Greater Milwaukee Association of Realtors has issued a revised version of its report for May, showing the area added 2,293 units for the month.

See the revised report here.

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