Farm emissions bottom lines

The Government is due to announce a final decision in the next few weeks. This is a big moment for our sector and farmers are understandably wanting to know what Federated Farmers’ position is. New Zealand is already worldleading in greenhouse gas efficiency for meat and milk production. Global warming is worsened if a tax forces a production drop here.

We have been clear and consistent since 2019 about what we stand for and we have three firm bottom lines that we won’t budge on.

Firstly, we won’t support emissions pricing until there has been a review of the current methane reduction targets that takes the different warming impact of methane into account.

Our current methane targets are unrealistic, unscientific and go further than is needed to stop farming’s contribution to warming. We are never going to support a 10% 2030 target that drives a 20% reduction in sheep and beef and a 5% reduction in dairy, while plastering our countryside in pine trees and hollowing out rural communities.

Secondly, we will only support pricing for the purpose of incentivising the uptake of viable mitigation options. Anything else is just a tax on a productive sector, which doesn’t have options.

Because NZ farmers are already the world’s most emissions efficient producers of milk and meat, we are going to need new tools and technology to support further reductions. As it currently stands, we don’t have any tools that can be adopted at scale. Frustratingly, the few options we may have, like feed inhibitors and genetically modified ryegrass, are being held up by a lack of regulatory pathways.

Finally, we won’t support emission pricing if it’s just going to lead to what is called ‘emissions leakage’.

It makes absolutely no sense to reduce our production here, only for the gap in the market to be filled by a less emission efficient producer. That will just ruin our economy while increasing global emissions.

New Zealand should be in the business of exporting food and fibre, not jobs, market share and emissions.

Farmers can have confidence that Fed’s will stick firmly to these bottom lines and won’t accept anything that doesn’t meet them. The Government needs to step back and realise that the world has continued to spin for the last few years, and we are now living in a very different environment.

Now is not the time to pull the handbrake on our productive sector. Individual farmers and companies are innovating at a terrific pace and as consumer preferences and market demands change, so will our farmers.

Andrew Hoggard is national president of Federated Farmers of NZ.