Dairy features in Feds manifesto

The commuters took little notice of the (mostly) dark-suited men gathered around a small podium, but in the capital the document itself will score brownie points for the Federation.

President Bruce Wills says though dairying gets only limited specific mention in the manifesto, in fact issues affecting the sector feature all through the document. Feds decided not to single out specific sectors but to focus instead on generic issues affecting all pastoral farming.

Such issues as NAIT, ETS, water, science and many more apply to all sectors. But in the manifesto, Wills and the new Feds board signal a more conciliatory approach to dealing with complex and controversial environmental issues.

"Farmers have two options," Wills says. "If we chose not to front foot some of these obligations on the environment and take greater responsibility for our actions than we have in the past, we're going to end up an overly regulated industry. In the European Union and the US farming is very heavily regulated.... New Zealand hasn't gone down that track yet."

Wills is asking farmers to be more open and honest about their environmental footprint and to work pragmatically and positively with councils to satisfy community concerns. He hopes this will avert long term the burden of regulations under which farmers labour in most other countries.

"We need to listen to the concerns of our urban population and our markets and what they are telling us. They say, 'hey, we love your food New Zealand, and we like what you're doing, but take care of the environment.' We must listen to that."

The solutions to these problems will come from good science, Wills is certain. "We can produce more food off less land with a smaller footprint but we've got to do it by being smarter and using sensible science."