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I'm on the fence about foreign ownership of farmland.
In the 80's everyone was squawking about the Japanese buying up land and farms. Thirty years on, and there doesn't seem to be any appreciable negative impact.
While I agree that local ownership is usually preferable, foreign ownership is not always a bad thing, particularly if it brings in upgrades to infrastructure and employment.
A good many Ozzie farmers simply don't have the cash to do this. Government support for agriculture is very limited - usually to crisis payments - and when offered a heap of money for perhaps a marginal property, what are you going to do?
The use to which the land is put will be governed by various levels of legislation and its unlikely we'll see Chinese-owned farms being turned into theme parks, "Chinese-Only" golf courses or toxic waste dumps.
FWIW, though I don't have the exact figures, Australia and Australians are one of the largest foreign investors - that is we buy far more foreign land and companies than other nations buy ours. We need to have a little perspective on foreign sales and consider the efficacy of the enterprise rather than just who owns it.
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