Mississippi Today
Mississippi Ag chief, lawmakers targeting foreign farm ownership
Mississippi officials are calling attention to the growing amount of foreign-owned farmland in the state, although it makes up less than three percent of the state’s agriculture and forest land.
The amount of Mississippi farmland owned by foreign, nonresidents grew by over 100,000 acres from 2011 to 2021, according to a November report, totaling over 700,000 acres now. The report was written by a recently formed committee of Agriculture and Commerce Commissioner Andy Gipson; Attorney General Lynn Fitch; Rep. Angela Cockerham, I-Magnolia; Sen. Brice Wiggins, R-Pascagoula; Rep. Bill Pigott, R-Tylertown; Sen. Chuck Younger, R-Columbus; and three private sector appointees.
The report calls for the Legislature to create an enforcement mechanism for already-existing rules on land ownership.
According to state law, foreign, nonresident land ownership is prohibited except for: taking a lien on a property to secure a debt; inheriting property, if the new owner is from Lebanon or Syria (communities from those countries settled in Mississippi in the late 1800s, around when the state’s current constitution was written); having no more than 320 acres for industrial development; or having no more than five acres for a residence.
Foreign-owned farmland makes up 2.6% of the state’s total, slightly less than the national rate of 3.1%. The Netherlands is by far the top among the abroad landowners in Mississippi, with about 350,000 acres, according to the report. German and British owners each account for another 60,000 acres, roughly.
Gipson told Mississippi Today that those countries are likely responding to European regulations around fertilizer and dairy cows, leading them to buy forest land in places like Mississippi.
“I think that a lot of this activity, that has increased in the last 10 years, is happening because people around the world understand that the greatest physical asset in the state of Mississippi is our farmland,” said Gipson.
The November report also specifically targets land owned by federally defined adversaries, something other states have also addressed recently.
“Continued unrestricted foreign ownership of Mississippi’s agricultural land and water
rights especially by foreign adversaries … presents a serious concern to Mississippi and to national security, including food security,” the report says.
Only one of those adversaries, China โ which owns 88 acres in the state โ is listed in the report.
In October, Arkansas became the first state to order that a Chinese-owned company, Syngenta, divest itself of 160 acres of farmland in the state, the Associated Press reported. In just the last year, 10 states have added laws restricting or banning foreign ownership of farmland, the article says. In response, Syngenta told the AP: “Our people in Arkansas are Americans led by Americans who care deeply about serving Arkansas farmers. This action hurts Arkansas farmers more than anyone else.”
While Mississippi already has such laws, officials are looking for guidance on how to enforce them. In May, after Gipson asked Fitch if land purchases violating state law were “null and void,” the AG responded that the state law only says that such land is supposed to revert ownership to the state. Gipson said in the report that he plans to follow up with Fitch about how the state can apply such a process, known as “escheatment.”
During a public comment period, nearly all of the dozens of Mississippians who wrote in to the committee expressed concern over other countries owning farmland in the state.
The committee also heard in-person testimony from several groups. One of which, the think-tank America First Policy Institute, specifically warned about the potential influence of China’s Communist Party through its citizens buying farmland in Mississippi. The nonprofit was founded in 2021 to promote former President Donald Trump‘s public policy agenda.
“We must fortify our supply chains and ensure national self-reliance to marginalize the CCP and its strategies to subvert us,” the group’s Chair Steve Yates and Director Adam Savit said in a statement.
Another testimony, from the Mississippi Forestry Association, sided against more regulations, arguing that doing so could hurt the state’s forestry industry.
“Foreign owners of forests in Mississippi share Mississippi values,” Executive Director Casey Anderson said in a statement. “They understand the important economic value of their forests to Mississippi.”
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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Mississippi Today
On this day in 1875
Nov. 2, 1875
The first Mississippi Plan, which included violence against Black Americans to keep them from voting, resulted in huge victories for white Democrats across the state.
A year earlier, the Republican Party had carried a majority of the votes, and many Black Mississippians had been elected to office. In the wake of those victories, white leagues arose to challenge Republican rule and began to use widespread violence and fraud to recapture control of the state.
Over several days in September 1875, about 50 Black Mississippians were killed along with white supporters, including a school teacher who worked with the Black community in Clinton.
The governor asked President Ulysses Grant to intervene, but he decided against intervening, and the violence and fraud continued. Other Southern states soon copied the Mississippi plan.
John R. Lynch, the last Black congressman for Mississippi until the 1986 election of Mike Espy, wrote: โIt was a well-known fact that in 1875 nearly every Democratic club in the State was converted into an armed military company.โ
A federal grand jury concluded: โFraud, intimidation, and violence perpetrated at the last election is without a parallel in the annals of history.โ
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Mississippi Todayโs NewsMatch Campaign is Here: Support Journalism that Strengthens Mississippi
High-quality journalism like ours depends on reader support; without it, we simply couldn’t exist. That’s why we’re proud to join the NewsMatch movement, a national initiative aimed at raising $50 million for nonprofit newsrooms that serve communities like ours here in Mississippi, where access to reliable information has often been limited.
In a time when trusted journalists and media sources are disappearing, we believe the stakes couldn’t be higher. Without on-the-ground, trustworthy reporting, civic engagement suffers, accountability falters and corruption often goes unaddressed. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Here at Mississippi Today we act as watchdogs, holding those in power accountable, and as storytellers, giving a platform to voices that have been ignored for too long. And we’re committed to keeping our stories free for everyone because information should be accessible when it’s needed most.
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Every dollar raised strengthens our ability to serve you with fact-based journalism on issues that impact your everyday lifeโwhether it’s covering local election issues or reporting on decisions affecting schools, safety and economic growth in Mississippi. Your support makes it possible for us to stay rooted in the community, offering nuanced perspectives that help Mississippians understand and engage with what’s happening around them.
Special Event: โFreedom of the Press: Southern Challenges, National Impactโ
As part of the campaign, we’re excited to host a special virtual event, โFreedom of the Press: Southern Challenges, National Impact.โ Join Deep South Today newsrooms Mississippi Today and Verite News, along with national experts on press freedom, for an in-depth discussion on the unique challenges facing journalists in the Deep South. This one-hour session will explore the critical role local newsrooms play in holding power accountable, highlighting recent restrictions on press freedom such as Louisiana’s โ25-foot law,โ which affects journalists’ ability to report vital news.
We’ll examine what’s at stake if local newsrooms lose press freedoms and will discuss how you, as members of the public, can help protect it. This event is open to Mississippi Today and Verite News members as a special thank-you for supporting local journalism and standing with us in this mission. Donate today to RSVP!
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Thank you for believing in the power of journalism to strengthen the communities we loveโnot only during election season but year-round. With your help, we’ll keep Mississippi informed, engaged and connected for generations to come.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Hinds County loses fight over control of jail
The Hinds County sheriff and Board of Supervisors have lost an appeal to prevent control of its jail by a court-appointed receiver and an injunction that orders the county to address unconstitutional conditions in the facility.
Two members from a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with decisions by U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves to appoint a receiver to oversee day-to-day jail operations and keep parts of a previous consent decree in place to fix constitutional violations, including a failure to protect detainees from harm.
However, the appeals court called the new injunction โoverly broadโ in one area and is asking Reeves to reevaluate the scope of the receivership.
The injunction retained provisions relating to sexual assault, but the appeals court found the provisions were tied to general risk of violence at the jail, rather than specific concerns about the Prison Rape Elimination Act. The court reversed those points of the injunction and remanded them to the district court so the provisions can be removed.
The court also found that the receiver should not have authority over budgeting and staff salaries for the Raymond Detention Center, which could be seen as โfederal intrusion into RDC’s budgetโ โ especially if the receivership has no end date.
Hinds County Board of Supervisors President Robert Graham was not immediately available for comment Friday. Sheriff Tyree Jones declined to comment because he has not yet read the entire court opinion.ย
In 2016, the Department of Justice sued Hinds County alleging a pattern or practice of unconstitutional conditions in four of its detention facilities. The county and DOJ entered a consent decree with stipulated changes to make for the jail system, which holds people facing trial.
โBut the decree did not resolve the dispute; to the contrary, a yearslong battle ensued in the district court as to whether and to what extent the County was complying with the consent decree,โ the appeals court wrote.
This prompted Reeves to hold the county in contempt of court twice in 2022.
The county argued it was doing its best to comply with the consent decree and spending millions to fix the jail. One of the solutions they offered was building a new jail, which is now under construction in Jackson.
The county had a chance to further prove itself during three weeks of hearings held in February 2022. Focuses included the death of seven detainees in 2021 from assaults and suicide and issues with staffing, contraband, old infrastructure and use of force.
Seeing partial compliance by the county, in April 2022 Reeves dismissed the consent decree and issued a new, shorter injunction focused on the jail and removed some provisions from the decree.
But Reeves didn’t see improvement from there. In July 2022, he ordered receivership and wrote that it was needed because of an ongoing risk of unconstitutional harm to jail detainees and staff.
The county pushed back against federal oversight and filed an appeal, arguing that there isn’t sufficient evidence to show that there are current and ongoing constitutional violations at the jail and that the county has acted with deliberate indifference.
Days before the appointed receiver was set to take control of the jail at the beginning of 2023, the 5th Circuit Court ordered a stay to halt that receiver’s work. The new injunction ordered by Reeves was also stayed, and a three-person jail monitoring team that had been in place for years also was ordered to stop work.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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