Significant Development in Agriculture - Push Back by Australia

This news is a hugely important development for Asia:

Pannett, Rachel, 2010. Australia aims to address foreign-ownership fears. The Wall Street Journal, Nov. 22.

From the article, two meaningful passages:

"CANBERRA, Australia—Australia's center-left Labor government said Tuesday it will examine foreign ownership of the country's rural land and agricultural food production in response to a spate of takeovers that have triggered anxiety about job losses and broader concerns about food security."

specific concerns,

"Worries about foreign ownership have been mostly limited to the mining and energy sectors, where a wave of investment by Chinese state-owned firms has threatened a loss of sovereignty and price control over commodities such as iron ore and coal. But last week's delisting of wheat exporter AWB Ltd., an icon of the country's agri-business, highlights increasing pressure on the country's agricultural companies." bold added

Essentially, Australia is moving down the path toward nationalization of assets to protect against foreign ownership and loss of control. The addition of agricultural assets is a new development in the context of Australian politics. This is unprecedented!

I take this as an early warning sign of a major push back regarding who controls the world's agricultural assets, especially for Asian countries that do not have the means to produce enough food for massive domestic populations. Significant inflation in food prices underpins moves by various Asian countries such as China to purchase land in places like Africa and Australia. The local populations are reticent regarding these efforts having observed the consequences of such actions in other industries.

I think the next 50 years will be a good time for American agriculture!