By Clint Thompson
U.S. Congressman Austin Scott (R-GA-08) believes China to be an adversary, no longer an aggressive competitor. So, naturally when China controls certain agricultural inputs, most notably seed, it concerns the legislator.
“I don’t blame the Chinese for being smart, I blame us for being naïve about what they were doing and not paying enough attention to it all of these years,” Scott said.
Scott spoke on Saturday at the Southern Peanut Growers Conference. Included in much of his talk was a focus on China; its pursuit of U.S. land and to control certain segments that are vital to U.S. agriculture. It is a scary proposition to have a non-friendly country control much of what is key to produce food in the U.S.
“China over the last several years has moved from what I would have considered 10 years ago, from an aggressive economic competitor to an adversary. They are no longer a competitor. This isn’t a friendly relationship anymore. They are our adversary,” Scott said. “When they were an aggressive competitor, they accumulated a lot of the seed technology. Syngenta seed company is probably the largest seed company in the world. They’re owned by ChemChina. If you think about them having the ability to cut off seed supply to the United States, that puts us in a very dangerous position when you can’t grow the food supply that your people need.
“Through the FEC and other areas, we need to bust up the monopolies that exist and get more competition in the seed supply chain. We need to make sure that we as a country aren’t dependent on foreign sources of seed or chemicals for our ag inputs just like we need to make sure we’re not dependent on foreign sources for our inputs in any of the other manufacturing areas.”
Scott also addressed the issue of foreign countries owning U.S. land.
“We see in the news a lot of discussion about the purchase of land. The thing that we have to keep in mind is land is titled at the state level. In most cases, it’s going to be better for the individual states to address it inside their titling laws I believe,” Scott said. “It’s not just an issue with agriculture, it’s an issue with land around our military bases.”