Iowa congressman took cash from Chinese companies buying American farmland
Same show, different day.
Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-IA) has made opposing the Chinese acquisition of American farmland a cornerstone of his congressional career and has highlighted this position during his ongoing run for Iowa governor. However, campaign finance records show Feenstra was accepting contributions from political action committees controlled by Chinese companies that have purchased swaths of farmland in the United States.
Federal Election Commission records show that, between 2020 and 2024, committees belonging to Syngenta and Smithfield Foods wired over $20,000 to Feenstra’s congressional campaign. Both Syngenta and Smithfield Foods have strong ties to the Chinese Communist Party and collectively control tens of thousands of acres of farmland across the U.S..
Syngenta was acquired in 2017 by the China National Chemical Corporation, a Chinese state-owned enterprise, and later folded into SinoChem, another firm owned by the Chinese government. Smithfield Foods, for its part, was purchased in 2013 by the Hong Kong-based WH Group, a firm whose top executives are CCP members with extensive ties to the Chinese government.
“In Congress, I led the charge to ban China from buying American farmland,” Feenstra wrote on X in October 2025. “We cannot let China buy up our land, especially near sensitive military bases. As Governor, I will keep China out of rural Iowa and away from our farms.”
Feenstra has indeed taken many actions during his tenure on Capitol Hill to curb foreign acquisitions of American farmland.
On March 30, 2023, for instance, the congressman sponsored an amendment to the Lower Energy Costs Act that would bar “China from buying American farmland suitable for ethanol and biodiesel production.” Just weeks later, he accepted a $5,000 donation from Syngenta’s PAC, campaign finance records show.
About a year later, in February 2024, Feenstra penned an op-ed in a local publication arguing that there is an “urgent need to defend our farmland from our foreign adversaries” in order to “keep China at bay.” Two weeks earlier, the FEC records show he accepted another $5,000 from Syngenta.
Syngenta’s PAC boasts of being “on the front lines advocating policy outcomes that will favorably impact individuals in the [agriculture] industry,” funding members of Congress who “promote the ag industry’s Freedom to Operate.”
U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, listens to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speak during a fundraising picnic, Saturday, May 13, 2023, in Sioux Center, Iowa. (AP …
Same show, different day.
Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-IA) has made opposing the Chinese acquisition of American farmland a cornerstone of his congressional career and has highlighted this position during his ongoing run for Iowa governor. However, campaign finance records show Feenstra was accepting contributions from political action committees controlled by Chinese companies that have purchased swaths of farmland in the United States.
Federal Election Commission records show that, between 2020 and 2024, committees belonging to Syngenta and Smithfield Foods wired over $20,000 to Feenstra’s congressional campaign. Both Syngenta and Smithfield Foods have strong ties to the Chinese Communist Party and collectively control tens of thousands of acres of farmland across the U.S..
Syngenta was acquired in 2017 by the China National Chemical Corporation, a Chinese state-owned enterprise, and later folded into SinoChem, another firm owned by the Chinese government. Smithfield Foods, for its part, was purchased in 2013 by the Hong Kong-based WH Group, a firm whose top executives are CCP members with extensive ties to the Chinese government.
“In Congress, I led the charge to ban China from buying American farmland,” Feenstra wrote on X in October 2025. “We cannot let China buy up our land, especially near sensitive military bases. As Governor, I will keep China out of rural Iowa and away from our farms.”
Feenstra has indeed taken many actions during his tenure on Capitol Hill to curb foreign acquisitions of American farmland.
On March 30, 2023, for instance, the congressman sponsored an amendment to the Lower Energy Costs Act that would bar “China from buying American farmland suitable for ethanol and biodiesel production.” Just weeks later, he accepted a $5,000 donation from Syngenta’s PAC, campaign finance records show.
About a year later, in February 2024, Feenstra penned an op-ed in a local publication arguing that there is an “urgent need to defend our farmland from our foreign adversaries” in order to “keep China at bay.” Two weeks earlier, the FEC records show he accepted another $5,000 from Syngenta.
Syngenta’s PAC boasts of being “on the front lines advocating policy outcomes that will favorably impact individuals in the [agriculture] industry,” funding members of Congress who “promote the ag industry’s Freedom to Operate.”
U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, listens to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speak during a fundraising picnic, Saturday, May 13, 2023, in Sioux Center, Iowa. (AP …
Iowa congressman took cash from Chinese companies buying American farmland
Same show, different day.
Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-IA) has made opposing the Chinese acquisition of American farmland a cornerstone of his congressional career and has highlighted this position during his ongoing run for Iowa governor. However, campaign finance records show Feenstra was accepting contributions from political action committees controlled by Chinese companies that have purchased swaths of farmland in the United States.
Federal Election Commission records show that, between 2020 and 2024, committees belonging to Syngenta and Smithfield Foods wired over $20,000 to Feenstra’s congressional campaign. Both Syngenta and Smithfield Foods have strong ties to the Chinese Communist Party and collectively control tens of thousands of acres of farmland across the U.S..
Syngenta was acquired in 2017 by the China National Chemical Corporation, a Chinese state-owned enterprise, and later folded into SinoChem, another firm owned by the Chinese government. Smithfield Foods, for its part, was purchased in 2013 by the Hong Kong-based WH Group, a firm whose top executives are CCP members with extensive ties to the Chinese government.
“In Congress, I led the charge to ban China from buying American farmland,” Feenstra wrote on X in October 2025. “We cannot let China buy up our land, especially near sensitive military bases. As Governor, I will keep China out of rural Iowa and away from our farms.”
Feenstra has indeed taken many actions during his tenure on Capitol Hill to curb foreign acquisitions of American farmland.
On March 30, 2023, for instance, the congressman sponsored an amendment to the Lower Energy Costs Act that would bar “China from buying American farmland suitable for ethanol and biodiesel production.” Just weeks later, he accepted a $5,000 donation from Syngenta’s PAC, campaign finance records show.
About a year later, in February 2024, Feenstra penned an op-ed in a local publication arguing that there is an “urgent need to defend our farmland from our foreign adversaries” in order to “keep China at bay.” Two weeks earlier, the FEC records show he accepted another $5,000 from Syngenta.
Syngenta’s PAC boasts of being “on the front lines advocating policy outcomes that will favorably impact individuals in the [agriculture] industry,” funding members of Congress who “promote the ag industry’s Freedom to Operate.”
U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, listens to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speak during a fundraising picnic, Saturday, May 13, 2023, in Sioux Center, Iowa. (AP …
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