Who Owns Our Farmland?

There's been plenty of chatter lately on the interweb about foreign ownership of US farmland - much of it singling-out China in particular for scorn.  Anyone who follows me here or knows me on a personal basis would tell you that I am no fan of Communist Red China.  We can have a discussion another day about all there is to dislike about these commies and the teetering and dire condition of their economy and social state resulting from insular autocratic rule.  Today I would like to set the record straight on the foreign ownership matter.

Foreign persons or entities held an interest in over 43.4 million acres of US agricultural land as of December 31, 2022.

This is 3.4 percent of all privately held agricultural land and nearly 2 percent of all land in the United States.  The Top Ten countries who own the most acres are as follows:

Canada (12,845,000 acres)

Netherlands (4,875,000)

Italy (2,703,000)

United Kingdom (2,538,000)

Germany (2,269,000)

Portugal (1,483,000)

France ( 1,316,000)

Denmark (856,000)

Luxembourg (802,000)

Ireland (760,000)

According to a USDA report from 2021, China owns roughly 384,000 acres of US agricultural land.  Of that, 195,000 acres, valued at almost $2 billion at time of purchase, are owned by 85 Chinese investors, which could be individuals, companies or the government. 

Of the 109 countries that own US farmland, China ranks No. 18, far behind No. 1 Canada (12.8 million acres) and even the Cayman Islands (672,000). 

Chinese agricultural land ownership increased significantly under the Former Guy.  Only about 550 acres were purchased from 2015 to 2019.  Chinese ownership jumped 30% from 2019 to 2020, from 247,000 acres to roughly 352,000.

You're welcome.....

 Source:  Forbes

The Walls Have Ears

In Medieval times it was said that if you were in someone else's castle beware what you speak.  The walls have ears.  Nowadays, we don't have castles where bad people can eavesdrop on your conversations.  We have devices that can do that and much, much more.  Technology is ubiquitous and data can be swept-up and used for all sorts of noble or nefarious purposes.

If you’ve been following the drama in Washington DC lately this may be of interest. 

Communist Red China is always watching.  And I’m not talking about spy balloons.  

Under the law in China, any company must cooperate with the government.  So if you've got TikTok on your phone, you may want to watch your back.

However, there is an even scarier company out there, it's called META. 

Both companies collect the same data, but Zuckerberg  takes this a step further.  He takes your data, bundles it and sells it to scammers. 

This is video is worth a watch. Less than three minutes….

 

Behind the Curtain

On October 27, 1961 combat-ready American and Soviet tanks faced off in Berlin at the U.S. Army's Checkpoint Charlie. 

Tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union over access to the outpost city of Berlin and its Soviet-controlled eastern sector had increased to the point of direct military confrontation.

Cooler minds prevailed, the Soviet system eventually collapsed and today Germany has been made whole.

Communism doesn't work... 

 

Behind The Curtain

No trip behind what had formerly been a Soviet communist puppet state behind the iron curtain without a trip to the Cold War Museum on Wenceslas Square in historic Old Town Prague.

The Hotel Jalta (Yalta) was erected from 1954 to 1958 on the location of a building destroyed by allied bombing during WWII.  From the 1950s until 1989 the hotel was home to a cold war secret.  20 meters underground is a bunker spread over three floors designed to provide shelter for up to 150 prominent state officials and espionage officers for as long as two months in event a nuclear exchange occurred between Warsaw Pact countries and the West.

The bunker had its own power and water cistern and operating theater.  The concrete walls are two meters thick and include a steel slab designed as a radiation shield.  Two emergency exit tunnels lead to Wenceslas Square and an adjacent building.

Following the Velvet Revolution and return to democratic government the bunker was declassified and turned over to the hotel.  It is now a cold war museum.

If you like espionage and intrigue this is worth a visit.  The Secret Police occupied the space for  four decades creating a listening post to eavesdrop on the hotel's guests who were largely officials of Western countries.

West Germany's embassy was located on the premises in the 1970s and the Secret Police tapped their phones and bugged their offices.  Here you will see how hotel room bugs were hidden in items as innocuous as a shoe brush.

Our guide at the entrance

Soviet era propaganda  

Medical facilities

Air handling equipment (still works)

Telex, communications equipment and switchboard used to listen-in and record bugged hotel rooms 

Show me your papers!

One of the escape tunnels

You can learn more about the museum here

Behind the Curtain

In case you are scratching your noggin over the title of this post we recently returned from a trip of almost two weeks through Eastern Europe.  

Formerly a satellite nation in the orbit of the Soviets; in 1993 Czechoslovakia separated peacefully into two new countries - the Czech Republic and Slovakia.  A great number of Slovaks were of the opinion that the country was too Prague-centric and a great number of Czechs felt they were subsidizing Slovakia.  Neither country garnered a popular majority supporting independence.  Nevertheless, the divorce was orchestrated by the Czech and Slovak prime ministers - Vaclav Klaus and Vladimir Meciar following the 1992 elections.

The German Democratic Republic (GDR), aka East Germany, was reunified with West Germany on October 3, 1990.  The GDR was neither a democracy nor a republic.  Another former satellite nation in the orbit of the Soviets, free elections were nonexistent.  Citizens were generally forbidden to travel and lived under the iron rule of a puppet state answerable to Soviet Russia.

The people I met in both the Czech Republic and formerly East Germany have now been freed of Soviet domination for three decades.  They do not speak fondly of the Communist Years nor do they harbor any fondness for their former Russian overlords.

The boundary that divided Europe into two spheres of influence for more than three generations following the end of the Second World War and the end of the Cold War in 1991 was metaphorically known as the Iron Curtain.  

The Iron Curtain was a symbol of the effort made by the Soviet Union to keep its satellite states from the influence of the decadent west.  Unintentionally, this became our trip behind what was previously on the other side of the iron curtain.

The front end of the trip began with several days in Prague and ended with several days in Berlin.  Before, after and in-between were plenty of sights to be seen, food to eaten and terrific adult beverages to be quaffed.  

Speaking of which, if you've ever consumed an imported Pilsner Urquell from a green glass bottle in the states you might comment that it is a good beer.  Highly-hopped, almost to the point of skunkiness, nevertheless a good beer.

Pilsner Urquell served from the tap is milder, full-bodied yet mellow and delicious.  Of course, I would say the same thing about Guinness stout in Ireland.  A Guinness consumed in the shadow of the brewery is better.  But I am biased.  And I digress.

Czech cooking famously features pork, duck and chicken, cabbage and various dumplings swimming in delicious gravy.

One Czech Koruna is worth about .046 USD.  500 Koruna is worth about $23 and a mug of delicious Czech pils will set you back about 5 CZK.  The Czech Republic is both a member of the EU and NATO but does maintain its own currency.

If you fetch a couple thousand CZK from the ATM at a bank you'll feel like a high roller.  Live it-up as the exchange rate is in your favor.

And don't sweat deciphering the bill after dinner.  Learn a little Czech to match a little English.  The rest is gestures. 

Pro Tip: Euros and American dollars are readily accepted.