Republicans have spent years warning that China should not be allowed to buy American farmland.
But some Republican insiders are getting paid by the Chinese-controlled company sitting squarely in the middle of that fight.
Federal lobbying disclosures reviewed for this report reveal that former Republican congressional staffers have been hired by Smithfield Foods to work on the very legislation Washington is advancing to restrict foreign ownership of American agricultural land.
Smithfield is effectively Chinese-controlled: Hong Kong-based WH Group beneficially owned roughly 87 percent of the American pork giant as of 2026, while Smithfield itself reports owning approximately 87,000 acres of U.S. land. WH Group grew out of China’s Shuanghui empire, whose longtime chairman Wan Long has been identified as a Chinese Communist Party member and served in China’s National People’s Congress.
As President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans publicly move to restrict Chinese access to American farmland, Smithfield has assembled a Washington influence operation stocked with former Republican congressional aides, agriculture policy insiders, and revolving-door lobbyists.
Among them are former aides to Republican Sens. John Warner and Susan Collins, a former House Republican Conference official, and a former U.S. Department of Agriculture official.
And federal lobbying filings show they have been working directly on “foreign farmland ownership restrictions.”
THE CHINA FARMLAND LOBBY
Smithfield paid Holland & Knight $270,000 during the second quarter of 2025 for a portfolio of lobbying issues that specifically included “issues related to foreign ownership of agricultural land.”
The filing went further.
It identified S.903, the Promoting Agriculture Safeguards and Security Act, or PASS Act, as legislation Smithfield was lobbying on and described the issue as “foreign farmland ownership restrictions.”
The lobbyist assigned to that legislation was Christopher DeLacy.
Before becoming a powerful Washington lobbyist, he worked on Capitol Hill as counsel to Republican Sen. John Warner of Virginia and as counsel to the House Science Committee’s Technology Subcommittee.
By the end of 2025, Smithfield had added another Republican congressional veteran to the farmland fight.
A fourth-quarter lobbying disclosure identifies DeLacy and Molly Ross as the two lobbyists specifically working on S.903 and a separate Rounds-Cortez Masto measure involving “foreign farmland ownership restrictions.”
Ross spent eight years working on Capitol Hill for Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
Her legislative portfolio included agriculture, nutrition, appropriations, and energy, precisely the policy areas now at the center of Washington’s fight over foreign control of American agricultural assets.
Her law firm biography boasts of the relationships she built with congressional committees overseeing agriculture policy.
Those relationships are now being deployed on behalf of Smithfield.
The same disclosure lists DeLacy, Ross, Joel Roberson, and former USDA official Peter Tabor lobbying more broadly on “issues related to foreign ownership of agricultural land.”
Smithfield paid Holland & Knight another $270,000 that quarter.
FORMER GOP INSIDERS, NOW ON SMITHFIELD’S PAYROLL
Joel Roberson offers another example of the Washington revolving door surrounding the company.
A federal lobbying registration lists Roberson’s former government jobs as committee liaison and floor debate coordinator for the House Republican Conference, followed by work for the House Judiciary Committee.
When Greenberg Traurig registered to lobby for Smithfield in May 2026, the firm listed both Roberson and DeLacy as lobbyists expected to work on “issues related to foreign ownership of agricultural land.”
REPUBLICANS SAY CHINA IS THE THREAT
The lobbying campaign comes as Republican officials are describing Chinese access to American farmland as a national-security emergency.
The Trump administration’s National Farm Security Action Plan declared that foreign adversaries should not be permitted to gain control over American agricultural land.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins vowed the administration would “never let foreign adversaries control our land.”
Sen. Mike Rounds, the Republican sponsor of S.903, has warned that hostile countries including China are seeking opportunities to gain access near sensitive American facilities.
Other Republican lawmakers have described Chinese farmland ownership as a threat to military security, food security, and rural America.
Washington Republicans say they are fighting to keep China away from American farmland.
Chinese-controlled Smithfield has made sure some of their former colleagues have a seat at the table.
The ROT IN DC IS SO MASSIVELY PUTRID -
Lobbyists are a great evil.
Politicians are bought and paid for- and still We the People have to pay and pay and pay.
When will it end?
Lobbyists
Muslims
Democratic socialists
Marxists
And people who are tooo lazy to care.
America is being sold to our enemies.
Heads need to roll!