No land - no food!

Secretary for the Environment, Vicky Robertson, says how these issues are managed and the choices made by people will shape the landscape for future generations. Her comments came at the release of a document - Our Land 2021 - produced jointly by the Ministry for the Environment and Statistics NZ and based on the theme: Land use change and Intensification.

The report explores these issues and points to some of the drivers. For example, it states that what food people eat and where they live will have an impact on the environment. Consumer preferences - both here and in our export markets - are part of this.

Robertson notes that the rising NZ population is a major factor.

"Population growth has a significant impact on our land including our highly productive land that is vital for growing vegetables and fruit. Increasing amounts of this land is being lost to urban expansion and lifestyle blocks," she told Rural News.

"Continuing to grow food in the volumes and quality we have come to expect, depends on the availability of land and quality of the soil. Once highly productive land has been built on, we can't use it for production."

Robertson points out that in just under 20 years the area of highly productive land that has been lost to housing has increased by 54%. She says if this trend continues, the supply of food such as vegetables is likely to become even more expensive - unless other alternatives are found. The report also notes that land taken for rural residential has also doubled during this period.

The report goes on to say that the land used for agriculture has been decreasing since 2002. It says between 2017 and 2019 it fell by 2%. In terms of dairying, the report notes the increase in cow numbers and the greater use of irrigation especially for dairy farming.

The report also touches on the implications of this and suggests that taking water for irrigation has the greatest potential to reduce river flows across the country, to affect aquifers and ultimately ecosystems.

"What we point to is the rate of change in dairy, but we don't make a judgement," Robertson says.

Bananas in Southland?

Vicky Robertson says climate change is going to become increasingly important to all New Zealanders.

She says we are seeing the impact of this with more extreme weather events and that some places in NZ will get hotter and drier, while others get wetter.

"The things we are growing on the land will need to change in response to that and the rate of change is one thing I don't think we have really thought about," Robertson told Rural News.

"Farming has been adapting for many years, but the question is: what is that rate of change over time?"

Robertson points to some obvious changes such as kiwifruit being grown in areas that were never considered several years ago.

Some crops are having to move south to colder climates and plant breeders are working on new varieties of horticultural crops that are better suited to warmer conditions.

The report also states that climate change will lengthen the growing season in NZ.

It also points to the social issues associated with land use change and highlights for the fact that, for example, when Southland changed from sheep and beef to dairy farming, it affected employment with a move from meat processing to dairy production.

Finally, the report emphasises the connectedness of land to well-being. The importance of land as a place to live, a source of food, income, culture and recreation. It also notes that Māori see the environmental systems as indivisible from themselves and their culture.

But for all the data in the report, Robertson admits there are still gaps in the data - in particular around soil. The question she says needs to be asked is, what about soil health?