Corporate narrative?
OPINION: Forget about the fabled 'rural-urban' divide, the real fault-line in farming might actually be the divide between grass-roots farmers and the industry corporates who claim to be 'speaking on behalf of farmers'.
Federated Farmers' conference last week was a great success, says president Katie Milne.
The federation joined forces with a commercial conference organising company to stage the event at Te Papa Museum in Wellington.
Milne says they decided to do something different and bring primary industries into Wellington to connect closer with politicians, academics, government officials and agribusiness people.
“It’s gone well and good feedback from everybody showed this format has worked. People made the connections we wanted them to make.
“We had great speakers from overseas and New Zealand and the conference had a different buzz.”
Milne says the farming sector is pretty flat at present despite prices being good.
The conference was aimed at helping the public and decisionmakers to better understand farming. Attendees aired their concerns, chiefly on government policies. And alternative proteins were also heard as a worry.
“Typical concerns were, what effect is the Zero Carbon Bill going to have on farms? and what must farmers do today about water policies?
They are uncertain what the impacts will be, Milne said.
“We also don’t think the regulatory impact analyses and cost benefit analyses have been properly done on a lot of these things, in particular the flow-on effects.”
Milne says the challenge is to deal with such issues while simultaneously identifying opportunities for the primary sector and seeing a clear path to achieve goals.
Profitability issues facing arable farmers are the same across the world, says New Zealand's special agricultural trade envoy Hamish Marr.
Over 85% of Fonterra farmer suppliers will be eligible for customer funding up to $1,500 for solutions designed to drive on-farm efficiency gains and reduce emissions intensity.
Tighter beef and lamb production globally have worked to the advantage of NZ, according to the Meat Industry Association (MIA).
Groundswell is ramping up its 'Quit Paris' campaign with signs going up all over the country.
Some farmers in the Nelson region are facing up to five years of hard work to repair their damaged properties caused by the recent devastating floods.
Federated Farmers is joining major industry-good bodies in not advocating for the Government to withdraw from the Paris Agreement.
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