The shift of power in Australia’s Federal Parliament, which is now largely in the hands of a few independents representing rural and regional constituencies, combined with the increasingly vocal calls for scrutiny of foreign investment has sent signals of a more protectionist stance for Australian agriculture.

If former Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke has his way, Saudi Arabia will produce its food in Australia.

"Indian law does not allow foreign companies to buy land and therefore Omani companies can enter into a contract farming relationship," says senior Indian government official.

New Zealand’s overseas investment regime will be on the US’ hit list during the Trans Pacific Partnership talks this week.

Government has taken action to resolve lingering speculation and strengthen transparency surrounding the degree of foreign ownership in Australian agriculture.

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.

New South Wales Farmers Association is calling for a register of all overseas purchases of Australian agricultural land and water licenses.

More than $9 billion of prized agricultural assets have been sold to offshore interests in the past two years alone.

Fears that faceless corporations and international investors would become the new barons of the Australian bush have proved to be unfounded

Australians are in danger of becoming servants, not masters, of their own food resources.

Cash-rich Chinese and Japanese food companies are thought to be the only potential buyers with enough money to risk sinking into New Zealand's biggest pipfruit business, Mr Apple, to be put on the market by South Canterbury Finance receivers.

Foreign ownership of watersheds or agricultural land plays into the perennial food security fears that are common in a nation forced to import about 60 per cent of its food.

Richard Fyers, a commercial lawyer with the NZ China Trade Association, writes about the fuss made over land sales to foreigners.

Mr Verghese says that Olam sees "sustainable value" in investing in agriculture, including farmland, and that GM crops are an inevitable "must".

The anxiety expressed in some farming quarters and the daily media about Australian farms becoming dominated by foreign corporations and governments fails to recognise that the coming and going of overseas investors has always been part of rural property transactions.

Emirates Investments Group is looking to buy food and agricultural assets in Australia and New Zealand as global demand climbs, CEO Raza Jafar said.

"I have asked the USDA if Chinese investors could buy farmland in the US and I got positive answers. In this way, Chinese grain price could escape the control of international grain enterprises," says Zheng Fengtian.

In an era when many countries are starting to worry about food security, foreign agribusiness might buy into the rural water market here in Australia and use permanent water holdings to dictate how our farmland should be used.

The news of BHP's recent bid for Potash Corp has brought the issue of investing in food security to the forefront, with CFSGAM, H3 Global and WLM Financial hot on the sector's trail.

The creation this week of the 'Save our Farms' campaign to block foreign ownership of New Zealand farm land has fired up a debate that needs to be had.

An inquiry into food production in Australia has recommended an audit of foreign-owned agricultural land and water

Australian Liberal senator Bill Heffernan warns that sovereign wealth funds need to be watched because some were "already acquiring other sovereigns' wealth to protect their own food security tasks".

Macquarie Group's agricultural division has launched a new cropping fund that will buy large-scale grain properties in Australia and Brazil.

Australia's opposition leader Tony Abbott said his Liberal-National coalition of center-right parties could revise the country's foreign investment laws if it wins power in the Aug. 21 general election.

LABOR has demanded the Coalition back foreign investment in the farm sector after it said he would be prepared to limit foreign purchases.

Public opinion is clearly against the Crafar farms sale on the basis that NZ is "selling the farm", while selling a controlling stake in a processing plant is seen as another issue altogether. There is a strong argument for conditionality either way, writes Fran O'Sullivan.

The Greens have called for a national register of foreign purchases of land and water in Australia.

New Zealand's Green Party has drafted a bill seeking to stop overseas buyers snapping up large tracts of NZ land. Australian farmers also fear they may have trouble coping with future food and water demands if foreign interests snap up too many of the nation's agricultural resources.

Critics say Australia's Labor party has failed to come to grips with country's future food security, including the acquisition of domestic farmland by foreign investors

As the world's available farming land shrinks in the face of population growth, climate change and soil degradation, Australia's vast tracts of land are going to be increasingly important for global food security. Is the sell-off in Australia's long term interests?