Dear Yabby,

It seems that they're not scaring old ignorant
farts though.

Yabby is right here China is buying land, but to continue to produce food.
Some country's do not allowed foreign ownership of land, some do.
The increasing world population, drought and effects of global warming are a threat.
Food shortages will get worse, are already very bad in Africa and India/ Pakistan.
OUG refreshing so very many will never consider the benefits of own grown.
Yet in my childhood it was an every day thing.
Dads grew the veggies mums the flowers.
My garden has grown from my working life ending and it is difficult to give, for free food away!
Had to put 20kgs of beetroot in the compost bin, no problems giving away half tonn of oranges and manderines.
40 KGS carrots are headed for compost after many feeds all free.
Pumpkins and cue cumbers will be given freely and much more .
My garden could feed tens .
We may See return to home grown.
Silver beat and young carrots are part of my tea tonight cost? not a thing gardening is rewarding.

Belly - excellent!

We did "fractions" today by cutting up potatoes. Then my son picked mint and spring onions from the garden and an egg from the chook house, and then made us a delicious potato salad. The only thing that wasn't home-produced was the mayonnaise.
All in all, a very productive maths/cooking lesson : )

Lexi, amazingly, when it comes to agriculture and producing food,
I am actually quite well informed, unlike the typical librarian :)

We could actually grow quite alot more food in Australia, but its
not done, as it doesent pay. That would soon change if it did pay.

Today the grower only lands up with a small % of what shoppers pay
for their food. That loaf of bread might only contain 25c worth
of wheat, yet they slug people up to 8$ for a gourmet loaf in Sydney.

As Belly points out, its not hard to grow food, but if we were to
pay him union award rates, double time and a half for Sundays and
the holiday leave loading, then pay him very little for the produce,
he might find it hard to do it as a business.

The point with land is this: My farm is in Australia and all that
I produce and what I do with it, is subject to Australian law.
It is no different for foreigners. It was in fact the British who
pioneered alot of the NT cattle country. And it was the Americans
who bankrolled farming in Esperance. Eventually they sold and moved
on.

Dear Yabby,

I grew up surrounded by farming country.
My father's best friend owned a nearby dairy.
We had chooks and ducks, and grew our own vegetables.
It was my job to mix the feed and feed the chooks
and collect the eggs. I had a pet duck that followed
me around like a puppy. And I still remember the taste
of milk from a freshly milked cow.

I don't share your optimism regarding China buying
our richest farming properties. I don't think we'll
benefit from that. And I believe that we're not as
well off feeding our current population, let alone
if it grows to the predicted huge size by 2050.
Somethings going to give.

Please don't patronise me with put-down references like -
"old grandmother," or that you know more than a "Librarian."
Possibly you do - but that's being rude and you can score
more brownie points by not stereotyping either grandmothers
or librarians.
Contrary to what you may believe - very few of us wear glasses
or have our hair in buns - and not all grandmothers are old.

Oops Lexi, you are sensitive about having become a grandmother.
That's just my sense of humour, deal with it as best you can.

I don't see why farmland should be treated any differently
then other foreign investment in Australia. In the end the
land stays here and anyone working it, has to comply with
Australian law. The Chinese clearly see it as a good investment
in the longer term and I don't blame them, I agree with them.

There are many reasons why they might buy land here. For one
they want to learn more about the milk industry, for they
buy a great deal of milk powder from us. They tried buying
our best cattle but wern't too good at knowing how to feed
them correctly, so it was a bit of a disaster. It would
make sense for them to eventually buy or build their own
dairy here, using their own farms as a base for production
and buying the rest from other farmers. The Japanese did
exactly that with beef feedlots and meatworks, to supply
the Japanese market.

If Australians want to own the farms, then they should buy
them. There is plenty of superannuation money in Australia
to do exactly that.