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  • From: Douglas Hinds <cedecor@gmx.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Cc: marketfarming <marketfarming@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Hungary bars foreigners from buying farmland | The Raw Story
  • Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2012 13:16:21 -0600

On 12/22/2012 10:06 PM, Lawrence London wrote:
Hungary bars foreigners from buying farmland | The Raw Story
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/12/22/hungary-bars-foreigners-from-buying-farmland/

Good for Hungary! The article states as follows (emphasis added by me):

/Hungary has amended its constitution to bar foreigners from buying
farmland, a move the government called "historic," but one that
could cause friction with the European Union./

/Foreigners are already blocked from buying farmland under a
temporary measure that formed part of Hungary's EU accession
agreement in 2003./

/But that measure, _aimed at helping Hungary avoid seeing its land
prices soar_ to catch up with other EU states including neighbouring
Austria, was originally set to expire in 2011, though was extended
until the end of April 2014./

/Hungarian lawmakers on December 17 voted by a large majority to
amend the constitution to bar foreigners from buying Hungarian
farmland./

/"_The constitution will guard Hungarian land as a national
treasure, our common inheritance and basis for our living, and
protect it from domestic and foreign speculators_," a statement from
the rural development ministry said./

/The vote was a "historic decision" and the "beginning of a new era
for agriculture," it continued./

/The government says *farmland needs to be protected from
speculators and bankers looking to score bargains at the expense of
farmers*.//
/


Many of you in the USA (an overpopulated country surrounded by 2 oceans, a sparely populated nation to the north and a country that speaks another language and has a different culture, to the south) are isolated from what goes on in the rest of the world.

Land is a finite substance that fills a fundamental need and therefore should NEVER be used for speculative purposes, which does in fact drive it's value up in an artificial way, since it's being used to _make money_ rather than produce food or provide housing, both of which (along with clean air) are basic needs.

_For that reason_ many countries have recognized the validity (because the need for it is basic and real), to legislate Agrarian Reform Laws that limit the amount of land a person can own and reserve land ownership for it's own citizens. Otherwise wealthy (and often rapacious) "investors" from anywhere can compete with each other, drive land costs sky high and thus deprive farmers and natives of the opportunity to own their own land (as is happening in many countries in Africa).

In the USA, where money is an end in itself (rather than a means of exchange), for many, most probably ignore the importance of this extremely important principle.

So once again: Good for Hungary!




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