A similar scenario in which communist China dominates the world through food security is what U.S. lawmakers are trying to avoid by holding a hearing on Wednesday about “the danger China poses to American agriculture.”

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem told lawmakers, “The threat is very real to us every single day.”

According to her, Chinese nationals contacted her state’s Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources last summer, “wishing to meet, tour, and have conversations about how we process and grow our food.” She said her staffers declined the meetings and learned days later from the State Department that those Chinese were spies “trying to steal our Intellectual Property and crop genetics.”

‘Asymmetric Warfare’

The Grain and Material Reserves Bureau of Hebei, the province surrounding Beijing, listed the Chinese strategist’s acts as the earliest historical “food war” lessons.

For example, the duke of Qi set off the trend of wearing cotton. Citizens of Qi began to buy cotton from two neighboring states, Lu and Liang, elevating cotton prices. As a result, those states abandoned agriculture and focused on producing cotton for profit.

However, a year later, Qi stopped buying cotton and cut off its trade with Lu and Liang, which couldn’t feed their own citizens. Many people in Lu and Liang migrated to Qi. Three years later, Lu and Liang folded under Qi without a war.

Calling food warfare a form of “asymmetric warfare,” the article published by Hebei’s Grain and Material Reserves Bureau says, “Food warfare is an alternative form of war, mainly characterized by long-term siege and starvation.

“The initiator uses the form of cutting off food sources, restricting food trade, destroying food storage, and forcibly expropriating people’s rations to achieve the goals by creating manmade famine, chaos, and unrest.”

Ms. Noem is concerned about U.S. agricultural dependence on China.

At the hearing, she warned lawmakers that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) intends to “buy up our entire food supply chain.” She said she had witnessed Chinese purchases of fertilizer companies, food processing companies, and now farmland.

“When America can’t feed itself, and we rely on other members of another country to feed us, it becomes a national security issue. The country that feeds us will control us,” she added.

Reduce Dependence on China

Members of the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture expressed bipartisan consensus on the threat the CCP poses. “Food security is national security,” lawmakers on both sides of the aisle said repeatedly throughout the hearing.

Josh Gackle, president of the American Soybean Association, shared with lawmakers China’s dominance as an export destination for U.S. soybean farmers.

China accounted for over half of the United States’ total soybean exports during the crop’s 2022/2023 marketing year, or Sept. 1, 2022, through Aug. 31, 2023. The total was $32.6 billion in 2023, of which China bought $18.8 billion, and the second largest destination was about $3.3 billion.

“The sheer scale of China’s demand for soybeans—more than 60% of global soy imports—cannot be replaced. One in three rows of soybeans grown in the U.S. is destined for China,” Mr. Gackle said, describing the current level of dependency on China.

To diversify markets, he identified Southeast Asia as a potential candidate. However, developing new markets can be rather costly. Therefore, he advocated for private-public partnerships in the United States and corresponding appropriations in the next farm bill, on a five-year update schedule required by law.

The current farm bill was enacted in 2018. President Joe Biden extended it through Sept. 30, 2024, while lawmakers firm up the updated version.

The letter was sent to executives at Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo and took exception with the group’s membership in the UN organized Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), according to Fox News.

The NZBA is “committed to financing ambitious climate action” and is attempting to force the economy to net zero greenhouse emissions by 2050. The letter notes that this could result in “severe consequences” for farmers.

The letter reads: “Achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture requires a complete overhaul of on-farm infrastructure — one of the goals of the NZBA.”

“This would have a catastrophic impact on our farmers. Proposed net-zero roadmaps describe dramatic, impractical, and costly changes to American farming and ranching operations such as switching to electric machinery and equipment; installing on-site solar panels and wind turbines; moving to organic fertilizer; altering rice-field irrigation systems; and slashing U.S. ruminant meat consumption in half, costing millions of livestock jobs,” it continues.

The letter then says: “To make matters worse, these changes will increase food costs and decrease food production at a time when global food demand is expected to rise dramatically.”

“This is compounded by the fact that, the average American has been struggling to keep up with inflation during the tenure of the Biden Administration. The reality could be much worse. These effects will hit the poor the hardest,” the commissioners wrote.

They said the goal of net zero emissions could “permanently damage American agriculture and endanger our country’s food security” and said that “American farmers should not be forced to put our food supply at risk.”

Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper commented to Fox: “American agriculture is sending a clear signal: we will not bend the knee to the failed, left-wing climate agenda of the United Nations that seeks to cripple one of our country’s most critical industries.”

“Now more than ever, banks that do business with America should be unquestionably supporting American industries — and that starts with the one that puts food on our tables, clothes on our backs, and shelter over our heads.”

Harper continued: “The UN’s Net-Zero Banking Alliance would be the equivalent of a run on the bank for our nation’s agriculture industry and pose a serious threat to our national security — and it must be stopped.”

Will Hild, the executive director of watchdog group Consumers’ Research, told Fox News: “Farmers and ranchers are the foundation of our economy and international climate cartels like the NZBA pose nothing less than an existential threat to their future. By forcing ESG, Brian Moynihan and his cohort have driven the cost of doing business for small family farmers and independent ranchers to astronomical heights.”

Hild continued: “The Ag officials and Commissioners hit the nail on the head in their letter: should their misguided climate extremism continue unabated, these megabanks will put our entire food supply in serious jeopardy. I applaud the states for their action, and I look forward to working with them to defend American consumers from this corporate malfeasance.”

Officials from Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Carolina, Texas and West Virginia all signed the letter. You can read the full letter here:

The letter asserts that, as members of the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), @BankOfAmerica, @Citi, @JPMorgan, @MorganStanley, @WellsFargo, and @GoldmanSachs are all working in lockstep to force the ESG agenda onto the entire domestic food supply chain: pic.twitter.com/1phYm6iOvo

— Will Hild (@WillHild) January 29, 2024