24/08/2026
Here’s an idea- in , corporate ownership of farmland is banned (despite being home to some of the worlds biggest companies). And they aren’t happy about it!
In fact anything apart from intergenerational transfer of farmland is very difficult (and 3 X more expensive to pass to another farmer outside of the family).
So if farmers are aggregating farmland in Switzerland, it costs them much more to do so than if the same family is transferring from one generation to the next. Policy supports small scale. A downside is it’s also harder for new farmers to get into farming as the government sets land values. Hectare hunting takes on a whole new dimension!
Regardless, in the home of investors, food farming is off-limits for investors!
Furthermore in Switzerland (intergenerational or not) new farmers need a “licence to farm” - that can be achieved via a type of traineeship (over a few years) or tertiary qualifications in a related field.
No licence, no land! Wouldn’t that be a game changer?
Back home in the land of “let her rip” Australia; corporate ownership (especially overseas investment), in a big part is about . No skills needed.
There must be more to it? So why do corporates (many of the big ones backed by overseas money) own such a large chunk of Australia? (Coming from an outsider to the foreign investment world).
Believe it or not- they probably aren’t owning land in Australia to make OUR system better or more resilient.
Speculation that our land values will keep escalating at rates that exceed most other forms of international “passive” investment must underpin, or at least contribute to, ongoing large scale investment. (And that other countries simply don’t allow it)!
There are other factors for overseas money pouring into Australia too - smart stuff that at home we overlook.
for an investing country’s own people, perhaps or ecological or just good old fashion for a pension or investment fund.
The other side of the argument is that we’ve always encouraged it and ultimately they cannot take the actual land with them (maybe the nutrition but not the dirt).
Over the years we’ve seen many foreign investment fads in rural Australia come & go. Changes at home, a drought, a shift in terms of trade (or profit taking) or a long term currency change are all reasons these massive businesses or funds sell out.
For farming families actually focussed on multigenerational food production, the cyclical influx of capital that sees Australian farmland as a better option than other places to invest in is (in general) a real pain. (Not a pain if they are giving you the money I suppose).
To expand farm size here, with Australian profits, taxed under our laws, refinancing (using domestic financial institutions and restrictions not international ones) has some very wealthy (on paper) families, highly extended (and relying on the same land value increase the pirates do to keep the big wheel turning).
If course “on paper” doesn’t mean s**t for multigenerational family operations - they aren’t selling! It just means adding an extra zero or two onto everything (including hours worked).
It took Switzerland to teach me that small is ok.
While I’m not saying that in Aus we don’t need to be internationally efficient - we are (incredibly) nor am I saying that international investment and big corporate interest hasn’t injected money into our economy over 200 years - it has (but most have got out with vastly more). But do we need to stop and think where this is heading?
I love economics and “free trade” but this simply isn’t!
They are investing here because our policies make it attractive to be land holders, not necessarily domestic food security givers and land stewards for the next 300 years.
The cycle currently is for large corporate ownership in Australia but in 300 years (or even 30) are we going to look back and start trying to make policies to protect our own food security, our own family farming culture, and our way of life outside of the urban and peri urban areas, or are we going to keep going on our urbanisation route where talented country kids choose city based careers in tertiary industries while multigenerational land stewardship skills and knowledge are lost to the concrete jungle?
After seeing the only- (well apart from ), economic shining light from Europe being small scale based (mainly ) businesses attached to multi-generational , It’s no wonder we looked at one of the smallest - Switzerland - to see what they are doing!
A covenant here- Swiss farmers are also paid (almost AUD 8 Billion) from the budget to maintain land and keep the place as a 300 year old picture post card (from the outside).
Inside- robots feed, milk and clean up. Chemicals are largely gone and farmers are (generally) wealthy & happy being the nations grounds keepers!
Kandanga Farm Store will be focussing more and more on the old skills, the tools and training we need to build this higher profit model (profit is the gap between what things cost to produce and what you make from them- without the capital gain of land value increase), food production skills.
Keep an eye on our events page and “follow” our social media platforms to keep up to date. Share with those you think may be interested (or should be)! Online will play a part for those who can’t get to us.
If you are in government, take some time away from the lobbyists and spend it in Switzerland. They may be small, but they think .
K2 Organic Beef
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Pic from Murdoch Press FB page.
