Datasets:

tensorust
/

afida-foreign-farmland-sample

state stringlengths 5 10	county stringlengths 4 14	parcels int64 6 910	acres_total_foreign float64 211k 2.09M	acres_canada float64 0 1.84M	acres_netherlands float64 0 184k	acres_germany float64 0 59.5k	acres_italy float64 0 159k	acres_united_kingdom float64 0 130k	acres_all_other_countries float64 0 253k	acres_cropland float64 0 348k	acres_pasture float64 0 402k	acres_forest float64 0 2.06M	acres_other_ag float64 0 67.7k	acres_non_ag float64 0 49.3k	share_forest float64 0 1	top15_chinese_investors float64	rank_in_state int64 1 5	rank_national int64 1 25
Maine	Aroostook	265	2,085,917	1,839,920	97,063	59,494	0	0	89,441	7,262	12,393	2,060,070	1,706	4,486	0.988	null	1	1
Colorado	Kiowa	464	555,711	237,076	100,765	625	0	0	217,245	348,337	138,126	17,694	42,254	9,300	0.032	null	1	2
Colorado	Cheyenne	367	495,577	21,851	143,991	4,971	159,235	130,044	35,485	290,683	150,572	4,995	48,107	1,220	0.01	null	2	3
Maine	Somerset	53	480,049	316,671	0	0	0	0	163,378	41	0	474,753	4,877	379	0.989	null	2	4
New Mexico	Lincoln	38	409,698	129,660	0	0	0	97,078	182,960	5,177	402,352	0	0	2,169	0	null	1	5
Maine	Penobscot	45	403,854	371,754	30,412	6	0	0	1,682	75	60	400,261	0	3,457	0.991	null	3	6
Maine	Piscataquis	26	397,500	342,274	53,680	0	0	0	1,546	10	20	387,322	10,139	9	0.974	null	4	7
Michigan	Keweenaw	6	373,274	0	120,133	0	0	0	253,141	0	0	373,274	0	0	1	null	1	8
Texas	Tyler	19	326,934	144,089	31,252	1,222	0	0	150,371	0	0	325,134	176	1,624	0.994	null	1	9
Louisiana	La Salle	12	326,494	79,015	183,685	0	0	0	63,794	0	0	316,149	0	10,345	0.968	null	1	10
Texas	Newton	13	306,103	182,652	1,896	19,567	0	0	101,988	0	0	306,103	0	0	1	null	2	11
Nebraska	Antelope	910	299,778	298,511	49	716	0	0	502	299,619	0	8	44	107	0	null	1	12
New Mexico	Union	86	277,132	260,249	16,883	0	0	0	0	260,249	16,883	0	0	0	0	null	2	13
Texas	Polk	28	273,935	112,470	61,674	936	0	28	98,827	1,838	75	266,443	0	5,579	0.973	null	3	14
Alaska	Aleutians West	11	270,131	270,131	0	0	0	0	0	0	270,111	0	20	0	0	null	1	15
Alabama	Butler	30	268,072	5,925	128,227	0	0	0	133,920	69	0	258,739	0	9,264	0.965	null	1	16
Nevada	Elko	8	263,240	73,041	0	0	0	640	189,559	112,606	82,934	0	67,700	0	0	null	1	17
Michigan	Gogebic	10	235,556	13,133	49,970	0	0	0	172,453	0	0	186,278	0	49,278	0.791	null	2	18
Montana	Rosebud	22	233,409	40,596	26,493	0	0	0	166,320	12,962	219,807	0	640	0	0	null	1	19
Oklahoma	Cimarron	337	229,383	226,902	0	0	0	0	2,481	227,382	0	0	1,981	20	0	null	1	20
Texas	Hardin	19	228,111	157,704	1,790	1,079	0	0	67,537	800	0	227,111	200	0	0.996	null	4	21
Texas	Hidalgo	579	221,563	271	1,149	5,080	85	15,365	199,613	95,509	104,849	1,824	16,743	2,637	0.008	null	5	22
Michigan	Ontonagon	16	212,123	16,699	57,711	0	0	6,615	131,098	0	0	212,123	0	0	1	null	3	23
Washington	Garfield	97	210,779	90,293	0	0	30,961	89,525	0	197,723	12,527	0	529	0	0	null	1	24
Oklahoma	Texas	341	210,707	178,897	0	0	24,184	0	7,626	193,588	16,172	5	855	87	0	null	2	25

Foreign-Held US Farmland: free sample (Tensorust LLC)

Foreign-held acres in 2,560 US counties by investor country and land use, from USDA AFIDA filings.

Headline: USDA counts 47,241,815 acres of US land with a foreign interest (Dec 31, 2024 data, released January 2026), but publishes it only as a 300-page PDF of rotated tables, so no state office can sort or join its own counties.

This repository is a free teaser, not the dataset. It holds 25 example rows and a summary table with no names in it. The full file has 2,560 rows and is sold by Tensorust LLC: https://tensorust.com/datasets/afida-foreign-farmland/.

Files here

file	what it is
`sample.csv`	25 rows of the full file (the same sample shown on tensorust.com)
`summary_by_state.csv`	row counts and totals by state across the full file, no entity names (groups with fewer than 3 rows are folded into "Other")

Summary by state (largest groups)

State	rows	Foreign-held acres
Texas	237	6,009,459
Georgia	144	1,361,364
Illinois	95	890,343
Virginia	83	293,800
Kentucky	81	127,647
North Carolina	80	615,506
Tennessee	79	478,318
Ohio	78	548,080
Iowa	78	509,572
Kansas	77	1,348,967
Indiana	77	468,308
Missouri	75	460,491
TOTAL	2,560	47,241,815

Full table: summary_by_state.csv.

What the full file has

2,560 rows
Key fields: state, county, parcels, acres_total_foreign, acres_canada, acres_netherlands, acres_germany, acres_italy, acres_united_kingdom, acres_all_other_countries
Parquet and CSV, a README with sources, method and limits, and the build script
Free 25-row sample (no personal contact data)

Coverage: Every county with a reported foreign interest (2,560 counties in 50 states and Puerto Rico). AFIDA filings as of Dec 31, 2024 (USDA release January 2026). Rebuilt when USDA posts the 2025 report.

Columns in the full file

column	meaning
`state`	State
`county`	County as printed by USDA
`parcels`	Foreign-held parcels (Report 3)
`acres_total_foreign`	Total foreign-held acres (Report 2)
`acres_canada`	Acres held by Canadian investors
`acres_netherlands`	Acres, Netherlands
`acres_germany`	Acres, Germany
`acres_italy`	Acres, Italy
`acres_united_kingdom`	Acres, United Kingdom
`acres_all_other_countries`	Acres, every other country
`acres_cropland`	Cropland acres
`acres_pasture`	Pasture acres
`acres_forest`	Forest acres
`acres_other_ag`	Other agricultural acres
`acres_non_ag`	Non-agricultural acres
`share_forest`	Forest share of the total
`acres_top15_chinese_investors`	Acres held in the county by USDA's top 15 Chinese investors (Report 10)
`top15_chinese_investors`	Names of those investors (entities as USDA printed them)
`rank_in_state`	Rank by foreign acres within the state
`rank_national`	Rank by foreign acres nationally

Get the full file

tier	price	includes
State edition	$495	One state: every county row, the Chinese top-15 holdings in that state, and a one-page state summary.
National file	$1,950	All counties as CSV and Parquet with the companion Chinese-investor file and method note.
Yearly license	$4,900 a year	The national file plus the 2025 AFIDA release when USDA posts it, prior-year county comparisons, and use across an office.

Email mattbusel@tensorust.com with the tier and a billing contact, and we will send a proper invoice (ACH or card). The file is delivered once the invoice is paid. Details and the live sample: https://tensorust.com/datasets/afida-foreign-farmland/. All datasets: https://tensorust.com/datasets/

Method and limits

The report PDF prints its county tables rotated. parse_report.py reads every word with its page coordinates (pdfplumber), treats one horizontal band as one county row and assigns each number to the column whose header sits at the same position, so blank cells stay blank. Every parsed row is checked: the six country columns sum to the county total and the five land-use columns sum to the same total (0 mismatches). Report 10 lines are read as text.

Not holding-level or owner-level data: USDA publishes counties and the top 15 Chinese investors, not every filer. Not a list of private individuals: the only names are the entities USDA itself printed. Not a legal finding under any state foreign land law; AFIDA counts interests, including leases and minority stakes. Not newer than the Dec 31, 2024 AFIDA data USDA has released.

Sources

USDA FSA, Foreign Holdings of U.S. Agricultural Land through December 31, 2024 (AFIDA annual report, Reports 2, 3 and 10), https://www.fsa.usda.gov/documents/foreign-holdings-us-agricultural-land

License

The sample and summary here are free to view, analyze and cite with attribution to "Tensorust LLC, https://tensorust.com/datasets/afida-foreign-farmland/". The full dataset is licensed separately per tier. No resale or redistribution of Tensorust data without a written license.

Tensorust LLC, Tuckahoe NY. mattbusel@tensorust.com | https://tensorust.com

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