AUSTRALIA needs to get serious about our wide open spaces.
We might have a land abounding with nature's gifts. But it seems that in the modern world we are only too happy to sell off those gifts to the highest bidder.
Every Australian must ask themselves: where does my food come from and where do I want it to come from in future?
And have a quick look at how rapidly the world's population is outstripping the finite resources supporting it.
What do we think is going to happen in 50 short years' time?
Somehow we seem reluctant to ask hard questions of ourselves when it comes to selling off the farm.
Why don't we want to keep Australian land, or at least the bulk of it, in Australian hands?
Don't we think we deserve to own it? Or can others farm it better?
Are we having a crisis of confidence?
We seem only too happy to profit from selling chunks of this wide brown land for our immediate gain.
Some say the investment dollars are needed to open up market access into new countries.
Surely this is just laziness and a lack of vision.
As a farming community, we also need to have a good hard look at our own motives.
Many farmers say they would love the younger generation to take over the farm.
Yet they bemoan the lack of opportunities and how hard it is to buy in with inflated land prices.
But when the big spender comes knocking at their farm gate, how many would hesitate before selling the farm to the investor whose interests are in another community, overseas?
Or to a coal miner?
We have a choice now.
We can either tighten foreign ownership rules and invest our own efforts, including research dollars, into making Australian agriculture a leading supplier to our Asian neighbours.
This will give Australians jobs and goals in future.
But it probably won't fill up our coffers overnight.
Or we can take the money and run.
