Thursday, 24 April 2025 08:55

Editorial: Making wool great again

Written by  Staff Reporters
Wool has slipped down the pecking order as a preferred option for floor coverings and other uses. Wool has slipped down the pecking order as a preferred option for floor coverings and other uses.

OPINION: Otago farmer and NZ First MP Mark Patterson is humble about the role that he’s played in mandating government agencies to use wool wherever possible in new and refurbished buildings.

The sheep and beef farmer has been campaigning quietly and perhaps not so quietly for many years to wake up our public servants and get them to realise the amazing properties of wool.

While the same government agencies have promoted ‘green’ programmes, it seems that wool was never on the agenda and that synthetic products represented better value. A strange and bizarre attitude, one would think.

But the fact that wool has slipped down the pecking order as a preferred option for floor coverings and other uses is not entirely the fault of the public service. Who was it that disestablished the NZ Wool Board in 2003 and who voted against the wool levy in 2009? It was farmers!

They can hardly grizzle about the consequences of their decision which left wool in a neutral or limbo state while the synthetic companies upped the ante and took up the gap left by wool. Perhaps the past wasn’t all that bad. If farmers hadn’t made these decisions in 2003 and 2009 would things have been different? Who knows.

But moving on, Patterson, who is Associate Minister for Agriculture and Minister for Rural Communities, deserves credit for taking a giant step forward by educating public servants and setting an example to the private sector that using wool is the right thing to do.

Its environmental properties have been known for generations and hopefully new innovative products – not just carpet – will be used more widely. Wool pillows for example are beautiful and the use of wool for acoustic purposes makes sense.

What’s more, wool should be an income earner for sheep farmers – not a cost as it is for some. Whatever happens, Patterson and the NZ First team have at least raised the profile of wool to a new level and long may it continue to rise.

More like this

Editorial: KiwiSaver to the rescue?

OPINION: Farmers are rightly urging the Government to relax the rules around KiwiSaver and allow young farmers to use their savings towards purchasing either a house, cows or a farm.

Editorial: Keep moving forward

OPINION: Over the past 25 years growing wine, Jonathan Hamlet has seen "a massive evolution" in the care taken in vineyards.

Editorial: Winston's words of wisdom

OPINION: Foreign policy is a real strength of Winston Peter and this is recognised by Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) officials who, so the story goes, wanted him in his present role because of his experience in that field.

Featured

National

Machinery & Products

New Holland combines crack 50 years

New Holland is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the introduction its Twin Rotor threshing and separation technology, which has evolved…

Iconic TPW Woolpress turns 50!

The company behind the iconic TPW Woolpress, which fundamentally changed the way wool is baled in Australia and New Zealand,…

» Latest Print Issues Online

The Hound

Double standards

OPINION: Imagine if the Hound had called the Minister of Finance the 'c-word' and accused her of "girl math".

Debt monster

OPINION: It's good news that Finance Minister Nicola Willis has slashed $1.1 billion from new spending, citing "a seismic global…

» Connect with Rural News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter