On September 27th, CFACT Senior Policy Analyst Gabriella Hoffman testified before the 2023 Kansas Interim Special Committee on Foreign Adversary Investments and Land Purchases. She was invited to speak at the behest of state Senator Mike Thompson (R-KS) and, along with Margaret Byfield of the American Stewards for Liberty, delivered a statement that focused on various threats posed to land ownership and private property rights.
Throughout her speech, Gabriella stressed the importance of property rights and how looming threats, both foreign and domestic, threaten to undermine these rights during her testimony. “Property rights are inalienable to us as citizens and are foundational to a market-based society like that historically found in the United States,” Hoffman said.
Her testimony primarily touched on three important points:
Concerns regarding foreign holdings of U.S. land – including adversarial nations like China that are purchasing large swaths of productive farmland.
How certain corporations are seeking to limit individual ownership of land.
How the Environmental, Social, and Government (ESG) movement – especially the E (environmental) prong – poses a threat to property rights.
Gabriella added, “While China’s holdings are paltry compared to the aforementioned nations, it’s confounding that our government would allow purchases by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to proceed—especially as the ruling party there is increasingly taking small and large stakes in private companies. Why would the CCP respect our laws regarding private property rights when it actively restricts access to financial markets and blatantly violates intellectual property rights at home?”
In addition to providing testimony, Ms. Hoffman also writes for CFACT, conducts media interviews, and hosts the Committee’s original video series “Conservation Nation” as well as her own District of Conservation podcast.
