I think this writer ought to spend a little time in south western Australia. Clearly he is ignorant of the supply chains and ownership issues here.

Two examples. The entire sheep supply chain from the paddock to abattoir (or the live sheep transporters in our ports) is owned by middle Eastern interests.
There is discussion of a part of the dairy industry being bought by foreign interests (Chinese this time).

The FIRB policy should be changed to exclude food production. I can see a time when a much bigger fraction of our daily bread will come from China.

"And the idea that Australians might run short of food because it is grown on foreign-owned land is too silly to take seriously. Australia is a huge food exporter and always will be, no matter who owns the land on which it is produced."

This in itself is a silly comment in the light of rising oil and phosphate prices as these resources essential for modern agriculture decline. The author seems to think that foreign investors themselves blindly believe in the free market but the Chinese only follow free market principles as long as it is to their advantage. As Chinese food production declines due to rapidly diminishing fossil water supplies we will see them reliant on importing the food they need for an ultimate population of 1.5 billion. The free market then will not apply. You will not be able to buy the food output of the Chinese-owned farms for love or money - it will be sent to China even if people here are going without. The bilateral deals that the Chinese are doing for oil supply are an example. This oil will never get to the export market - so where the Chinese go the "free" market for oil disappears.

Only a blind believer in the free market would put Australia's own food security at risk by allowing other nations to own our food-producing land.

For an objective view of Australia's food production, consumption and our food security see:

http://www.energybulletin.net/node/52706

these days foreign owners are more diverse and include the Chinese,
“who are viewed with similar suspicion to what they faced 150 years ago when they came to dig for gold”

Silly comment !? This one is “blatantly misleading” !!

The few straggling Chinese miners of yester-year didn't present the threat of today's
“Military Super Power” and emerging “Economic Super Power” !!

ps. didn't bother to read after this point.

Arthur Bell aka bully !!

...To be frank, I think foreign ownership (read Chinese), of the farm is OK providing an exponential American military presence in Australia balances the potential threat to our sovereignty posed by the rising Chinese empire that plays the game of expansion by its own rules.

Diver Dan It is emphatically NOT OK even in the vanishingly unlikely event of an American force here.

The points that Michael Lardelli made were appropriate and perhaps too polite.

That said, I also read sarcasm...

*The entire sheep supply chain from the paddock to abattoir (or the live sheep transporters in our ports) is owned by middle Eastern interests.*

You'd better clarify what you think that they actually own, Renew.
The supply chain between a paddock and an abattoir or boat is
a truck and I am not aware of Middle East interests having taken
over WA livestock trucking.

The largest corporate investors in livestock and the live trade
would be Siba ships/Wellard. They own a few farms, alot of ships
and the odd holding yard. They have created huge benefits for the
WA livestock industry as it stands, but AFAIK that is Italian money.