license: other
license_name: tensorust-sample-license
license_link: https://tensorust.com/datasets/afida-foreign-farmland/
pretty_name: Foreign-Held US Farmland (free sample)
language:
- en
tags:
- tensorust
- sample
- ownership-and-control
- government-data
- finance
size_categories:
- n<1K
configs:
- config_name: sample
data_files:
- split: train
path: sample.csv
- config_name: summary
data_files:
- split: train
path: summary_by_state.csv
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