There is a political call for registration of farm sales to foreign interests.
I don't have an issue with that, once Australian investors and farmers see how atractive our resources really are they may have more confidence to invest themselves.
It is interesting that during a period of high local currency value and a consequent disadvantage to foreign buyers, that interest in Australian farming assets is so strong.
Unfortunately homegrown buyers have to contend with an interest rate several percent higher than other nations and are competing with superannuation and fund monies that don't have to service debt during droughts and floods.
What I do wonder is what politicians wish to do about foreign ownership, presumably there is some limit they have in mind. And what that means for sales when that limit is reached.
Some other views at Agmates.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
The Disconnection of Farming and Food
It is becoming more and more apparent that the gap between farmer and consumer is widening. Not so much in the sense that the consumer doesn't know "where milk comes from" but that they have opinions on how you should run your farm.
The quantity, quality and affordability of produce has bred a level of complacency almost to the point where farming in Australia is seen as a mistake, unless it is organic produce, sold via farmers markets after being pushed there by wheelbarrow. The wheelbarrow is an exaggeration, but you get my drift.
Maybe it's only the vocal minority, maybe I'm too precious, but somewhere in our existence we have to accept that 7 billion people will have an unavoidable impact on the environment that we are part of. Whether having 7 billion plus people is sustainable or not is not the issue I'm tackling, we're all here now and have to manage. What I am sure is that we wouldn't all survive without agriculture, or the transport sysytems used to distribute it's production.
A current catchcry is for sustainability in farming, when the very thing that makes farming unsustainable in the natural sense is the concentration and consequent disposal of nutrients by cities. Even a low yield organic model of production exports nutrients.
The quantity, quality and affordability of produce has bred a level of complacency almost to the point where farming in Australia is seen as a mistake, unless it is organic produce, sold via farmers markets after being pushed there by wheelbarrow. The wheelbarrow is an exaggeration, but you get my drift.
Maybe it's only the vocal minority, maybe I'm too precious, but somewhere in our existence we have to accept that 7 billion people will have an unavoidable impact on the environment that we are part of. Whether having 7 billion plus people is sustainable or not is not the issue I'm tackling, we're all here now and have to manage. What I am sure is that we wouldn't all survive without agriculture, or the transport sysytems used to distribute it's production.
A current catchcry is for sustainability in farming, when the very thing that makes farming unsustainable in the natural sense is the concentration and consequent disposal of nutrients by cities. Even a low yield organic model of production exports nutrients.
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