Milk from the purest Place on Earth: Examining investments in the Australian Dairy Sector.

Abstract

This article explores the emerging intersections between the shift towards higher quality food consumption in China and Chinese investment in overseas farmland. Based on an ethnographic study of a Chinese company acquiring one of Australia’s largest dairy farms, the article argues that the linkage between imported Australian milk and perceptions of safety and quality has served as a powerful driver of Chinese investment in overseas farmland—a linkage that has largely been overlooked by literature on China’s role in the global land rush. Drawing on the notion of ‘quality imaginaries’, the paper shows how images of Australian farmland as natural, pure, and geographically isolated have been mobilized by the investor company to position itself as provider of fresh, premium milk in the Chinese market. While such place-based qualities constitute a prized advantage, ironically, they also present a looming risk as the investor company struggles to reconcile fresh milk’s perishability with the farm’s location at the ‘edge of the world’. Thus, the case study not only demonstrates how cultural meanings tied to food and eating shape the ways in which investors imagine land’s affordances and possibilities but also draws attention to land’s materiality as a factor that both facilitates and destabilizes investment in farmland.

Biographical Notes

Michaela Böhme (SFB 1199 & Leipzig University)

Böhme started my PhD research at the Collaborative Research Center 1199 at Leipzig University in 2016 as part of the project “Land Imaginations: The Repositioning of Farming, Productivity, and Sovereignty in Australia”, headed by Dr. Sarah Ruth Sippel. Previously, I completed an MA in Global Studies with an area focus on China at Leipzig University. Her current PhD research explores the entangled interests and motive forces shaping Chinese investment in Australian farmland and agricultural resources. She is also interested in the political economy of China’s development, broader issues of multipolarity, and the globalization of food and agriculture.