Pondering the ramifications of Brexit

Globalisation is the process by which businesses develop international influence or start operating on an international scale.

Surely that is the best thing since sliced bread, especially if you are a under-populated food producing country in the South Pacific.

New Zealand is capable of producing a lot of healthy food and we have heaps left over to sell to the rest of the world. We have known this for many years, yet we are stymied by trade barriers, tariffs and regulations. Perhaps we’re also held back by our own lack of capital and inability to recognise and seize opportunity, so we seem to be constantly fighting a losing battle. Our report card on international trade might say: Could do better.

As a farmer at the coal face of dairying for more than 14 years, I have always felt like the horse trying to grab the carrot hanging on the end of a stick. There is enough incentive in dairy farming to see the potential gains, yet you cannot seem to ever quite get your gnashers around that darn carrot. Meanwhile, your bank balance seems to get smaller and smaller as you try harder and harder, never quite getting there. Frustrating.

Finally, New Zealand dairy farmers have a company able to participate meaningfully on a global scale - the much maligned Fonterra with its volume, value and velocity strategy, trying to flog our milk in an over-supplied international market. But thank God, otherwise every New Zealander would have to drink 20 litres of milk a day. We have banked on the world crying out for protein, even though at the moment it doesn’t seem like anyone wants to actually pay much for it.

Typically, just when the stars seem to have aligned with global markets opening up and New Zealand dairying on a platform to deliver, globalisation - and other things like corporations and profit - seems to have suddenly become a dirty word.

There seems to be a shift in perceptions that utilising scarce resources for commercial gain is something to be avoided. However if the utilisation of scarce resources results in the production of food - farming - I would suggest avoid that at your peril. Technology and tourism do not fill your belly.

Big is good might have resulted in the formation of the European Union where strength was sought from economic unity, yet we have just seen one of the major players Brexit.

But is this the start of a trend towards self-sufficiency becoming a country’s preferred option?

After all, people have complained about food miles as they become more aware of the environmental impact of food production and transportation. Britain tried to make a good go of the EU for 43 years. Obviously they don’t think it has worked so well for them.

So if modern people internationally are facing big issues like climate change and the collapse of their economies and they are starting to question the benefits of traditional monetary and economic systems, are they starting to lean towards thinking if we can’t produce it ourselves, maybe we should go without?

Despite the fact that generations of us have suckled successfully on the teat of globalisation and corporatisation, are such concepts starting to be viewed so negatively that countries are going to decide to go it alone?

If so, what are the implications for a small country like New Zealand that relies so heavily on exporting food to the rest of the world? In terms of scoring a few good trade deals with some wealthy countries, it feels like we are nearly there. Then all of a sudden the whole fabric of international trade might be about to undergo an unprecedented change. Where will that leave you?