FARM Act
Key claim: The FARM Act would place the Secretary of Agriculture on CFIUS, require review of foreign investments in U.S. agricultural businesses, and classify agricultural systems as critical infrastructure.
Abstract
(S179 · 119th Congress) Foreign Adversary Risk Management Act or the FARM Act This bill places the Secretary of Agriculture on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). It also requires CFIUS to review any investment that could result in foreign control of any U.S. agricultural business. Further, the bill includes agricultural systems and supply chains in the definitions of critical infrastructure and critical technologies for the purposes of reviewing such investments. The Department of Agriculture and the Government Accountability Office must each analyze and report on foreign influence in the U.S. agricultural industry. Latest action (2025-01-22): Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
Why this matters
The FARM Act would meaningfully expand the CFIUS national-security review perimeter by treating agricultural systems as critical infrastructure and giving USDA a formal voice in foreign-investment vetting. For importers, exporters, and foreign investors in U.S. agribusiness, this raises the compliance bar for M&A and could delay or block transactions that previously fell outside CFIUS scrutiny, with downstream effects on capital flows into U.S. food supply chains.