Land ownership can be a great thing. Make sure you get the mineral rights if possible when buying land. Even just owning mineral rights to land can be very profitable.
I agree that land owners is preferable. I live in an urban area were open land is quite scarce and very expensive. I haven't given up hope of owning land just yet. I don't want to leave the area even though it rather expensive to live here. Owning the mineral rights is very important. My family home sat on top of a substantial oil deposit, but my family had no claim to it. Something my mothers still pisses about to this day.