Members of a Kansas Judicial Council advisory committee concluded that a mandate that all partners in an agricultural or farming corporation were required to be Kansans was discriminatory against non-residents. Additionally, the panel concluded that the mandate that farm corporations operating in the state had to be formed under Kansas law violated laws on interstate commerce. Recommendations were made to allow farming corporations formed in other states to conduct business in Kansas and to allow “any natural person” to be part of those corporations. Currently the state limits corporate ownership of agricultural land to family farm corporations, family partnerships, or corporations with 15 people or less as stockholders who must all be Kansas residents and requires that at least one person live on the land and be actively involved in the supervision of the operation. There are certain exemptions for dairies, hog farms, poultry farms and feedlots. Kansas’ agricultural corporate laws have come into question since 2007 when corporate farming laws in Nebraska and South Dakota were declared unconstitutional.
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