Farmer ambivalence to rural land conversion in Australia and America: Regulatory implications

ABSTRACT:

Conversion of agricultural land to urban uses poses continuing problems in Australia and in the United States. This study reports data on Queensland farmer responses to government planning, comparing them with a study in Iowa. Farmers in both countries prefer regulatory models that stress voluntary compliance rather than enactment and enforcement of law. Farmers' ambivalence about controlling land conversion is based on both traditional agrarian beliefs and rational economic interest. In Queensland, entrepreneurial farmers, committed to farming as an occupation rather than as a style of life, are most supportive of government action to control rural land conversion.