Brownfield: NEFU VOICES CONCERNS WITH FARMLAND PURCHASES BY MORMON CHURCH
Howdy,
Whether it is Bill Gates, Ted Turner, the Mormon Church, or some innocuous sounding LLC that no one has ever heard of before, outside interests are increasingly buying up farm and ranch land.
In all cases, the profits that are made from those land purchases end up in the pockets of the owners who in most cases will never see or set foot on the land they own. That ownership structure changes the social and economic structure of rural communities, and not usually in a positive way.
At a minimum, the Legislature ought to update our state’s foreign ownership law to make it functional.
All the best,
John K. Hansen, President
Nebraska Farmers Union
john
402-476-8815 Office 402-476-8859 Fax
402-476-8608 Home 402-580-8815 Cell
1305 Plum Street, Lincoln, NE 68502
https://brownfieldagnews.com/news/nefu-voices-concerns-with-farmland-purchases-by-mormon-church/
NEFU VOICES CONCERNS WITH FARMLAND PURCHASES BY MORMON CHURCH
January 9, 2024
Brownfield
The president of Nebraska Farmers Union says he’s concerned about the large farmland purchases that the Mormon Church has been making in the state.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has bought nearly 370,000 acres of Nebraska agricultural land in recent years, and John Hansen tells Brownfield it’s creating some challenges for the state’s farmers and ranchers.
“Anytime you have a large outside entity with huge pocketbooks and they buy up farm or ranch land, it’s virtually impossible for local owners, especially beginning farmers or beginning ranchers, to ever begin to compete with the size of those pocketbooks.”
Hansen says the church could soon pass Ted Turner as the state’s largest landowner, and the state’s ag community has not been silent on the issue.
“I have yet to receive a happy phone call from somebody saying, ‘you can’t believe who’s just buying up land in my neighborhood.’ They’re always very concerned and they should be. They never think it’s a fair deal and they don’t think that their public officials at either the state or the federal level are doing much about it.”
An analysis by The Flatwater Free Press estimates the church now owns approximately $134 million of Nebraska farmland.
Hansen says he hopes the issue will be discussed during the 2024 Nebraska legislative session.