New Kiwis make agriculture unique, but a nasty undercurrent and hardened attitude puts newcomers off
When it comes to the foreign ownership of farmland, my family has a unique perspective.
Before my wife, Emily, and I moved our family thousands of miles from upstate New York to the Wairarapa, we did research. A great deal of it. We'd narrowed our choices to English-speaking Canada, Australia and of course, New Zealand. Since moving Downunder, we've learned that being a "good bastard" is a compliment. Maybe Winston Churchill was right when he said "Britain and America are two nations divided by a common language".
While Emily was the farmer, I was an investment analyst. Together, we learned about the country, its political stability, history, economy, agricultural system, climate and the rural property market. Of course, being "foreign investors", we checked out whether we'd be welcomed or not.
We quickly dropped Canada from consideration for being even colder than New York. We also wanted to break out of the closeted subsidy culture prevalent in North America. Although Australia offered space aplenty, dealing with years of drought followed by floods was a challenge too far. Our preference was for New Zealand's more benign climate.