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.