WASHINGTON-Ranking Member John Boozman (R-AR) welcomed Harrison Pittman, Director of the National Agricultural Law Center, to the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, where he shared his views on the the extent of foreign investment in American agriculture during a hearing on the subject.
The National Agricultural Law Center, a unit of the Division of Agriculture of the University of Arkansas System, is the only independent agricultural and food law research and information center with national and direct reach connected to the national agricultural information network.
Pittman received his Juris Doctor and LLM from the University of Arkansas Law Schools in Little Rock and Fayetteville, respectively, and has worked at the center since 2001. He is an active member of the American Agricultural Law Association and is a frequent presenter on a range of topics including the Agricultural Bill, the Water Act and the Environment Act.
“Many stakeholders in the food, environment and agriculture industry depend on the work of Harrison and his team to provide accessible, reliable and objective legal analysis. We are all proud of the work they do,” Boozman said in introducing Pittman.
VIDEO: Boozman’s Introduction, Pittman’s Testimony, and Boozman-Pittman Q&A
In his testimony, Pittman emphasized that much has changed since Congress passed the Law on Disclosure of Foreign Investment in the Agricultural Sectorwhich gave the United States Department of Agriculture authority over the issue in 1978.
“Agriculture in the United States and the world around it has changed significantly – just in the last few years, but certainly in the last three or four decades. Land transactions have generally become more complicated. They got bigger. The world of agricultural innovation and agricultural research changed in ways beyond our imagination in the late 1970s. At the same time, our national economy became much more interdependent on our trading partners,” Pittman said in his testimony.
In his opening remarks, Boozman referenced proposals presented in the Senate to address concerns about foreign land ownership. Among these initiatives is a provision drafted by Boozman and included in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023which directs the Department of Defense to examine and brief Congress on attempts by the People’s Republic of China to acquire land in close proximity to U.S. military installations and any ongoing efforts to counter such events.