(I read this by David Clark and believed it needed to be shared ). I have been reflecting on the farmer protests while going about my day feeding stock and delivering grain.
The protests in my view were well organised, peaceful and met with tremendous public support.
The political response got me thinking.
Minister for the Environment David Parker said on radio that he wasn’t backing away from ensuring Kiwi’s can swim in their rivers. We can and do safely swim in the river bordering our farm and in Lake Hood which is filled with river water. However I cannot swim in the Avon or the Heathcote or indeed many Auckland beaches during summer.
Minister for Agriculture Damien O’Connor and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern have variously said the the government need to impose regulations and restrictions on farmers to ensure we are able to sell our agricultural produce to overseas markets and demonstrate that we are addressing environmental concerns, water degradation and methane from livestock.
New Zealand’s farmers are already one of, if not the most efficient producers of food in the world from a Carbon perspective. We have the second best water quality in the OECD and produce some of the highest quality grain, seed and horticultural products in the world.
Why don’t we talk of these successes?
Can we do even better? You betcha we can and we are on a path of constant improvement.
New Zealand farmers receive one of the highest unsubsidised farmgate milk prices in the world, our beef and lamb are at almost record prices as are our horticultural products. We simply can’t produce enough to meet with the demand for the food we grow.
It is these food products that are keeping the lights on in this country.
Some said yesterday it was a bunch of farmers driving flash new tractors and utes. I would say it was a demonstration of the investment by farmers in world leading technology to maximise performance, including modern, low emission Tier 3&4 engines.
Would the public prefer farmers were driving 1970’s Belarus Tractors and Lada Cars? Is that what we would view as success for our nation?
What farmers were speaking out about was a raft of policies being put in place with little or no consultation that will achieve nothing more than making food production more expensive, reduce our productivity and result in much more of NZ farmland being planted in pine trees by overseas investors speculating on our Emissions Trading Scheme.
As currently written, the Freshwater Rules would require our mixed arable farming system revert to dry land sheep grazing. That concerns me.
But above all else, farmers like me
have had a gutsful of being vilified to suit a political agenda. We have had a gutsful of being slapped and that is why farmers took the very unusual step of taking to the streets.
(Feel free to share directly from my page)