'Our leaders are betraying farmers'

Instead of defending us, they have chosen political convenience and corporate appeasement over the truth. They have surrendered to an emissions (methane) reduction agenda that lacks both scientific and economic justification. Now, farmers face cuts that will cripple our sector, while those meant to stand up for us are negotiating our decline.

The role of methane in climate change has been grossly exaggerated. The IPCC AR6 Report states that ruminant emissions are overstated by 300%-400%. The Ministry for the Environment reports that total anthropogenic methane from 1850 to 2022 caused just 0.0021°C of warming— only 0.000012°C per year. With livestock numbers already declining, Professor David Frame calculates future warming at just 0.000004°C per year, effectively zero. Kiwi farmers are not driving climate change, nor will cutting methane cool the planet. Yet instead of standing up for this reality, our leaders bow to political pressure and corporate interests.

The worst part? Our own agriculture industry leaders – Beef + Lamb NZ, DairyNZ, and Federated Farmers – are enabling this betrayal. They talk tough but ultimately roll over. B+LNZ chair Kate Acland says, “We can embrace the investment in technology that will reduce methane emissions from our livestock that will allow us to maintain and even grow our production base”.

That is submission. Instead of rejecting the false premise that methane cuts are needed, Beef + Lamb NZ is embracing the illusion that farmers can innovate their way out of a problem that doesn’t exist.

Federated Farmers President Wayne Langford says, “We need tools and technology to reduce emissions without cutting production or exports”.

That’s not leadership, it’s capitulation. DairyNZ takes the same weak approach, openly admitting that it is actively involved in researching solutions to reduce methane emissions on New Zealand dairy farms. Instead of standing up for farmers and challenging the flawed science behind methane targets, it is grovelling to bureaucrats, working within a framework designed to undermine its own industry.

Meanwhile, industry heavyweights are bankrolling this agenda through AgriZeroNZ – a public-private joint venture backed by industry giants like Fonterra, Silver Fern Farms, Ravensdown, ANZCO, Rabobank, ASB, ANZ, A2, BNZ, Synlait and our taxpayer money. Co-ops like Fonterra, Ravensdown and Silver Fern Farms were created to serve farmers, yet today their executives seem more concerned with appeasing bureaucrats and corporate interests than protecting the grassroots food producers they work for. As Tarawera dairy farmer Wayne Bolt put it: “I’m not leaving Fonterra; they have left us.” Frustration is building, and a mass exodus is looming. Farmers won’t stand by as their co-ops betray them.

These policies and their so-called ‘solutions’ risk devastating consequences for both our farming systems and our agricultural exports. If only our leaders had stood up and stated the truth – that New Zealand farmers are the gold standard in sustainable agriculture, producing the highest-quality, lowest-emission food in the world – it would be a competitive advantage. Instead, the Government and industry are gambling on synthetic interventions— methane vaccines, boluses, and feed additives— that directly contradict our hard earned “Taste Pure Nature” branding.

How does dosing livestock with chemical additives align with our reputation for high-quality, low-input, grass-fed farming? It doesn’t. Just ask UK consumers what they think of Bovaer. Meanwhile, thousands of hectares are still being swallowed by pine trees, gutting rural communities and permanently removing prime agricultural land from production.

New Zealanders elected the coalition government to put the economy ahead of globalist agendas, yet their actions suggest otherwise.

If National continues down this path, they will lose the rural vote—along with the support of the wider agricultural sector, food producers, and business owners who are being crippled by these policies.

The backlash against increased emissions targets and the government’s refusal to leave the Paris Agreement has been enormous, but industry groups and politicians clearly aren’t reading the room.

Worse still, the Government has locked New Zealand into emissions reductions that will gut our agricultural sector— without even conducting a cost-benefit analysis. An Official Information Act (OIA) request confirmed that no government agency has calculated the economic impact of staying in or withdrawing from the Paris Agreement. Read that again. They made a decision that will fundamentally alter our economy, restrict our farming sector and impact every single New Zealander without even checking if it makes economic sense.

When farmers push back, we are met with the same manipulative talking points:

• "We need to do our bit." NZ farmers already produce the lowest-emission food in the world. We have done our bit! If cutting methane won't cool the planet but will cost billions, what exactly is "our bit" supposed to achieve?
• "We need to lead the way." Toward what? Higher costs, lower profitability, and the loss of thousands of hectares of farmland to pine trees?
• "We can't risk trade." A complete bluff. The OIA request confirms that no government agency has even calculated the cost of staying in the Paris Agreement versus leaving it.

We need real leadership - leaders who stand up for current science-based policy, not those who roll over to global greenwashing. We need industry bodies that represent farmers, not Wellington bureaucrats.

The betrayal by both industry and government will not be forgotten.

Paige Wills is a sheep and deer farmer in the Waitaki Valley.