Restrictions on the foreign buy-up of farmland are needed, at least until an accurate register of foreign ownerships is established.
However, the issue is complicated by the fact that many farmers would be happy to sell to anyone wanting to buy their farms, because of the parlous state of many rural industries.
One indicator of farm stress is farm debt, which has risen from 100 per cent of farm income in 1981 to about 650 per cent in 2011 (see News Weekly, August 17, 2013).
The issue of…