Rural-urban divide ‘a myth’
New Zealand’s rural-urban divide is a myth and farmers are just as committed to achieving swimmable rivers as anyone else, Fonterra chairman John Wilson says.
At the dairy co-operative’s annual meeting in Ha¯ wera on Thursday, Wilson said it was disappointing but unsurprising to see farming used for political point scoring during the election.
‘‘Being an election year, water rights and the quality of our nation’s waterways were always going to be part of the national conversation,’’ he told the audience of about 300 farmers.
‘‘While it was disappointing to read and hear about a supposed rural-urban divide being leveraged for political gain, it did galvanise our rural communities and the wider agricultural industry.’’
Wilson said the divide was a myth and dairy farmers wanted to see water quality improve as much as any other Kiwi did.
‘‘There is no rural-urban divide when it comes to water quality. We all want swimmable waterways everywhere across New Zealand. Every dairy farmer wants to pass on their land to the next generation in a better condition than they found it.’’
Fonterra contributed billions of dollars a year to the economy and dairy farming could continue to provide healthy financial returns without costing the environment, Wilson said.
‘‘We can have both and there is no better example of that than right here in Taranaki.’’
Findings from the Taranaki Regional Council’s 2017 Healthy Waterways report, released last month, showed Taranaki had recorded its best stream health trends in 21 years, he said.
‘‘Most measures were improving or not changing significantly for the ecological health and physical and chemical state of 99 per cent of Taranaki’s rivers and streams.’’
As well as improving water quality, the dairy industry needed to take action to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in order to meet international climate change commitments, Wilson said.
‘‘New Zealand is already one of the lowest emissions dairy producers in the world, thanks to our efficient pastoral grazing systems,’’ he said. ’’But as long as people choose natural foods like dairy, curbing production here will not solve the issue, it will only add to emissions by moving dairy production to less efficient producers in other countries.’’
If agriculture was included in the Emissions Trading Scheme, the dairy industry would need to align with how other diary producing countries treated their emissions and should only be included once farmers had access to effective mitigation technologies, Wilson said.
New Zealand farmers had always been quick to adopt new technology and the majority had sustainable farming practices ahead of the science.
‘‘I have absolute confidence with the right levels of investment from farmers, industry and government, farmers will have access to solutions that will assist us to manage nutrient levels and emissions.
‘‘It’s vital that central and local government works with us to take a holistic approach to addressing emissions and water quality, adopting a community-wide approach that considers all stakeholders to deliver the best outcomes for New Zealand.’’
To support farmers to meet new national and regional limits, Fonterra this year launched the Tiaki Sustainable Dairying Programme. The programme would support on-farm adoption of riparian management plans, double the number of sustainable diary advisors and introduce services tailored to each region to help farmers meet the expectations of their community and continue to build sustainable farming businesses.