04/30/2026
NFFC enthusiastically supports the bicameral Farmland for Farmers Act (S.4391 / H.R.8531), reintroduced yesterday by Senators Cory Booker (NJ) and Bernie Sanders (VT), and Representatives Jill Tokuda (HI-02), Jim McGovern (MA-2), and Shri Thanedar (MI-13). This pivotal legislation would curtail the alarming rising trend of investment firms, pension funds, and other multinational corporations snatching up farmland across the US, often using shady and exploitative practices against food producers and local communities to do so. More than 80 national, state, and local organizations and farmer advocacy groups have endorsed the bill.
Thank you to Sen. Booker and Rep. Tokuda for championing the bill. Thank you also to Sen. Sanders, Rep. McGovern, and Rep. Thenader for co-sponsoring.
We especially want to thank our members, allies, and supporters for keeping our elected leaders accountable to the family farmers and rural communities that are most impacted by the surging costs of farmland.
“Farmers — especially farmers of color and young and beginning farmers — across the US have seen a crisis involving institutional and corporate buyouts, exacerbating unfair land access and prices,” said Tiffany Bellfield El-Amin, Co-President of NFFC and Executive Director of Kentucky Black Farmers Association. “They prey on struggling farmers and their communities to exploit the land for uses that neither serve nor feed the community, nor employ its residents. Resources are limited and often gatekept due to these corporate buyouts — we must prevent institutional buyers from using resources that farmers rely on for their livelihoods. The Farmland for Farmers Act does more than protect access to farmland; it protects land prices and sustainability which farmers need to continue feeding our families and communities.”
“I am proud that American agriculture remains a family-run enterprise — from small, diversified farms to large, multi-generational operations,” said Cameron Skinner, owner of Living Soil Farm in Big Timber, MT and member of Northern Plains Resource Council and NFFC. “Farms like mine are vital to rural economies, providing local employment and sustaining communities across every region of the country. But family-scale farms are under threat, and 2025 reports suggest a 200% bankruptcy increase in Montana alone. The Farmland for Farmers Act will go a long way to addressing the challenges we face today in agriculture. I ask our Congress members to help keep farmland for farming!”
“This legislation is a critical step toward addressing aggressive corporate investment in Black-owned farmland,” said Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund. “For decades, the Federation has witnessed and worked to address barriers to land access and retention that Black farmers, landowners, and cooperatives have long faced, including challenges like heirs’ property and limited access to capital that threaten ownership and infrastructure expansion. The Farmland for Farmers Act will help ensure that our fertile, productive farmland can be protected and passed on to the next generation.”
READ ON: Link in comments for the full press release!
Senator Cory Booker
Jill Tokuda
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders
Congressman Jim McGovern
Representative Shri Thanedar
