Editorial: The Price of Progress

NZ is lauded by many other nations for maximising profitability and efficiency in the primary sector and this philosophy has served us well. We don’t subsidise our farmers like many countries in the Northern Hemisphere and in other parts of the world and that is reflected in the export dollar the primary sector brings to the benefit of all Kiwis.

This mantra works well for us and is a good selling point. At the same time, our scientists and engineers have contributed greatly on the efficiency and sustainability front. Like many other agricultural countries, NZ is still working through the issues of reducing greenhouse gases from animals and reducing pollution in waterways.

We have seen amazing progress on the horticultural front and that sector continues to boom, for the betterment of NZ.

But what is seldom talked about in our world is the quality of rural communities and the impacts of progress. The English countryside is stunningly beautiful and the small villages with their pubs and other amenities are delightful and inviting.

Conversely, over the years, the NZ countryside has become somewhat barren. Shelterbelts have been cut down to make way for large irrigators, boring pine trees have replaced on some good hill country where sheep once roamed and it’s cows and not sheep that dominate our landscape. With progress and efficiency, small towns and communities have died, rural schools and small general stores have closed, adding to the desolation and lack of character of some areas. The other concern is the definition of what is highly productive land and the fact that, snear some rural towns, houses are replacing field of vegetables.

Carmichael, while admiring the NZ way, sees the preservation of rural communities and landscapes as important and something that needs to be preserved. The question can be asked of NZ: have we sacrificed our way of life for the almighty dollar and how will history judge us?