BROOKINGS — Scott VanderWal, who lives and farms near Volga, wore two hats during a trip to Washington, D.C.: President of the South Dakota Farm Bureau Federation and vice president of the American Farm Bureau Federation.

In a telephone interview with The Brookings Register earlier this week, he talked about his visit with the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, subcommittee on highways and transit.

“It was basically a hearing to talk about what’s going on in the infrastructure world. We talked about a bill that’s been introduced by (U.S. Rep.) Dusty Johnson, from here in South Dakota, called the MOVE Act," VanderWal said.

Johnson wanted the subcommittee to hear VanderWal’s “perspective on how we can improve rural transportation that our country depends on.” The MOVE (Modernizing Operation of Vehicles in Emergencies) Act would “allow for flexibility and certainty for supply chains in emergencies.”

“I made the point that during the last few years we’ve been under pressure from a variety of factors: such as the pandemic; three consecutive years of drought; and of course highly pathogenic avian influenza. And we’re still suffering from some of the effects of the pandemic, with supply chain obstructions and those kinds of things.

“The point of Johnson’s bill is to give states more flexibility in waiving weight limits on the interstate highways when there’s an emergency," VanderWal said. "A good example that I gave the committee was about two to three years ago Texas had an extreme drought. We had a good year, so had some people from South Dakota trying to donate hay to down there.

“When they do that they try to get truckers to donate at least some of their miles or fuel or something like that. They try to get the state to waive the weight and over-width requirements in a case like that to make it as efficient as as possible. The way I understand is this bill would help with that.”

However, VanderWal noted that there would be some objections to that proposal: “You always have the ones that say, ‘Well, what about the roads. We don’t want those heavy trucks running on the roads and that’s going to destroy them.’

“Then we come back from that with: ‘Well, it’s very temporary. … If it’s a livestock issue, cattle can’t wait to be fed.’ You do what you have to in that case to get things done.”

Chinese ag land purchases: ‘Not alarmed’

A second topic, with a closer to home flavor, that VanderWal discussed with the Register was what has been a growing concern here in South Dakota: the purchase of ag land by foreign investors, especially the Chinese. That has been an especial concern of Gov. Kristi Noem.

“Our members are concerned about that,” VanDerwal responded to a question about those purchases. “But not alarmed. And the reason I say it that way is because when you look at the percentage of foreign ownership of ag land in the United States, it’s not very high. China is pretty minimal.

“We did not oppose the governor’s bill at this last legislative session,”VanderWal, explained. “That will help get some good data on that and we’ll see what the data tells us.”

In early March, the governor signed into law a bill that would ban foreign land ownership by China, North Korea, Iran, Cuba, Russia and Venezuela. 

He added that Noem has noted that “we don’t even know for sure what land China owns.” To VanDerwal that means there’s a need to gather better data.

“We’re certainly in favor of that,” he added. “We’re in favor of spending a little money to get that data and make sure we know who owns what. If it does become a problem then we’re certainly interested is finding solutions.”

VanDerwall also noted that there are already laws on the books in South Dakota and at the federal level prohibiting such land purchases by foreign agencies “if there is an imminent danger in it.”

There is a committee — CFIUS (Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States) — at the federal level charged with oversight of such transactions. “If they see a problem for national security, they can prohibit that from happening,” he said.

VanderWal noted that he and federation membership would like to see the United States Secretary of Agriculture sitting on that committee. There are already some cabinet-level members and high-ranking Washington bureaucrats already sitting on that committee. 

“We’re saying if this is an ag land issue, you certainly ought to have the U.S. ag secretary on that,” he said.

VanderWal explained that what is right now driving a high-level attention to this issue is the purchase of land by Chinese buyers near the Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota. His question: “Why wasn’t that Air Force base on the list of things that would get the attention (of CFIUS)? That should have been under the purview of CFIUS.  … I guess they did get that adjusted.”

VanderWal did urge some caution when it comes to foreign ownership of land — some of it is beneficial to American agriculture. As an example, he cited a Chinese-owned company in Arkansas does soybean research and hires American citizens. “You’ve got to be careful when you start restricting too many things.”

Contact John Kubal at jkubal@brookingsregister.com.