From salt of the earth to public enemy No 1
Farmers feel increasingly under attack, and some are at breaking point. Rachael Kelly reports on the rural fightback.
Last November, Southland dairy farmer Jason Herrick contemplated taking his own life. A wet spring had turned his farm to mud, his family was ‘‘going through some stuff’’ and anti-farming messages on social media all affected his self-worth.
Some groups, angry at the degradation of New Zealand’s waterways, point the finger of blame squarely at farmers. Online comments abound with terms such as ‘‘dirty dairying’’ and ‘‘environmental vandals’’.
A national campaign against winter grazing shows dairy cows standing in mud in parts of Southland. It riles up everyone from farmers to activists, and results in Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor setting up a taskforce to look at the practice.
Greenpeace is currently circulating a petition calling on the public to resist dairy expansion in New Zealand.
So why the attacks on our No 1 export producers – the industry that was once seen as the proud backbone of the nation?
Herrick sought help and has
‘‘It feels like the public all thinks we’re doing a bad job and we’re all environmental vandals ...’’ Southland Federated Farmers vice-president Bernadette Hunt
established a group called Ag Proud NZ to defend the work farmers do, but he says the antifarming sentiment is taking a toll on those working on the land.
Farmers are almost becoming ashamed of what they do because they’re being attacked from all fronts, he says. It’s a tough time to be a farmer.
Banks are asking for principal to be paid back because interest rates are so low, Mycoplasma bovis has led to entire farms being destocked, and the Government is proposing new taxes and freshwater rules.
And then there is the development of synthetic and plant-based alternatives to meat, leaving farmers wondering what the future might be.
‘‘You’ve also got the pressure from the community because of the bad media coverage that’s out there publicising farmers in a bad light. Farmers very soon are going to become in a shell of their own, really. They’re not going to put themselves out in the public because they’re getting attacked on all fronts and it’s not fair,’’ Herrick says.
‘‘Personally, I think that it’s the Government we have right now that isn’t helping. Our leader of the country is green, and the Greens are in power with them and that was never going to be a good thing . . . they were always going to attack farmers.’’
Herrick is proud of his 374-hectare farming operation. He knows each of his 985 cows and points out plenty of improvements he’s made to the land in the six years he’s been there.
So he was ‘‘pretty unhappy’’ when he caught environmentalists taking photos of his stock one night in August for a campaign against winter grazing in Southland.
Ag Proud NZ wants to take the good news about farming to the masses. It is taking its message to cities all over New Zealand – although Herrick doesn’t believe a rural-urban divide, in which townies have no idea about farming, exists.
Membership has swelled to more than 3000 members in a month, and half of them are from towns and cities. ‘‘We’ve got people in the cities coming up to us and saying, ‘Well done, keep up the good work and we’re proud of you’.’’
Southland Federated Farmers vice-president Bernadette Hunt is spending September on the lambing beat on the sheep and beef farm she and her husband own near Gore.
As the rain blows in on a cold southerly, lambs are cuddling up to their mums under shelter belts, and last year’s calves are grazing in a wintering shed.
She agrees with Herrick that farmers are feeling a pile of pressure at the moment.
‘‘There’s all sorts of regulations that are making it really challenging to do our jobs . . . on top of being busy out here, doing what we do best.’’
In the past week farmers have been critical of what they say is a short consultation time over proposed freshwater rules.
The Government announced the rules during calving and lambing, the busiest time of the farming year, and allowed an initial six-week timeframe for submissions.
‘‘It is feeling like we’re carrying a lot on our shoulders right now. We’re trying to get our heads around lots of new changes, and we recognise the need to be doing our bit to make sure we’re being sustainable.’’
Farmers have made environmental changes but there hasn’t been a lot of recognition of that, Hunt says.
Fonterra estimates its farmers have invested more than $1 billion in environmental initiatives in the past five years, have fenced 98.4 per cent of significant waterways, and thousands of kilometres of smaller ones.
But in sharing that story, she’s worried that farmers might sound like whingers.
‘‘It feels like the general public all thinks we’re doing a bad job and we’re all environmental vandals, whereas we know we’re out here doing the best we can for our stock, doing the best we can to mitigate the environmental challenges.
‘‘Huge numbers of us are certainly not rich, we’re working really hard just like lots of other people . . . we’re busting a gut every month to repay the debt and maximise what we can do with the property we’ve got to make ends meet.
‘‘We’re also long term here – if we rape the place this year, it’s not going to produce for us next year, so there’s no benefit for us in not looking after it.’’
Some of the attacks on the industry could be because people don’t associate farming with where their food comes from.
‘‘It used to be that everyone had a connection to somebody that was farming, and I don’t think that’s the case any more. We’ve got to do something about that – they all rely on the products we produce and the work that we do.’’
Nicol Horrell has a foot in both camps – he’s a sheep farmer, and the chairman of Environment Southland. ‘‘On one side, product prices are quite good at the moment, but the feedback from the farming community is that there are a number of things coming at them and they’re feeling pretty beaten up,’’ he says.
Farmers can adapt to change, if they are given consistent, clear messages and realistic timeframes to achieve things. ‘‘As chairman of Environment Southland, I take an oath to do the best for Southland, but I have a bit more empathy for those in the industry.’’
Last week Chris Garland, a director of agribusiness consultancy BakerAg NZ, wrote an open letter to the Government, saying morale among his farming clients is as low now as it was in the Rogernomics years of the late 80s, and during the global financial crisis.
He says farmers don’t feel valued by the public, and they’re not environmental vandals. ‘‘Government has contributed
strongly toward turning the public against farming, which has had a severe impact on farmers’ self-esteem and on their ability to cope with a rapidly changing policy environment.
‘‘Ministry of Health statistics confirm that mental health in the rural sector has deteriorated significantly over the last five years. The Government must understand that its own actions are exacerbating this decline.’’
In August, the attacks on the farming industry got so bad that National’s Clutha-Southland MP, Hamish Walker, issued a press release calling for it to stop.
‘‘I have seen the effects of this bullying of farmers first-hand. Some are at breaking point because of these one-sided attacks,’’ he said.
But O’Connor, MP for the rural West Coast constituency as well as being agriculture minister, says the Government is backing farming ‘‘long term’’.
‘‘Some would like to paint the values of farming and environmentalism as fundamentally opposed. If you scratch the veneer of that argument, it is quickly revealed as nonsense.
‘‘If anyone in this country relies on the long-term sustainability of our land and water, it’s farmers.
‘‘It’s a simple reality that rural people are at the forefront of the fight to protect our productive land for future generations. In my experience, the ultimate environmentalists are the ones who work intimately with our land.’’
The only constants for the primary sectors are change and challenges, he says. ‘‘Our producers should be really proud of their resilience and ongoing high performance. I’m certainly very proud of them.’’
Angus Robson was at the centre of the Southland campaign against winter grazing – by which animals graze crops such as fodderbeet or swedes strip by strip. It often leaves them in wet and muddy conditions in one strip until the next one is opened.
Robson says it was never his intention to attack farmers, just the methods they use, which he believes aren’t good for animal welfare or the environment.
‘‘I’d just reiterate again that we’re not attacking farmers – we’re attacking [Environment Southland] in its duty to monitor, regulate and maintain Southland’s waterways,’’ he said in August.
Another group targeting farming practices is Safe NZ, which has 65,000 members nationwide. It says its aim is to make significant improvements in the lives of animals by raising awareness, challenging cruel practices, changing attitudes and fostering compassion so animals are not exploited or abused.
It uses confronting images to get its message across – footage of newborn calves struggling to stand in muddy paddocks, chickens packed into factory farms, and cows in live export ships.
Chief executive Debra Ashton says people are wanting more information about how their food is produced, and the market is beginning to respond.
‘‘For example, all four major supermarket chains have now pledged to cage-free egg policies along with other restaurant and food brands, and there is rapid growth in the availability of plant-based food products.
‘‘We don’t want Kiwi farmers left behind while the rest of the globe shifts towards diets rich in plant-based foods.’’
She says the group values rural communities, but the planet is facing a climate crisis and we have to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, including methane and nitrous oxide produced in animal agriculture.
Ashton encourages farmers to prepare for the future and consider other opportunities such as transitioning to plantbased agriculture.
‘‘We recognise that there are farmers who are already doing their best to comply with current regulations, but there are still others who flout the rules which, in some cases, don’t go far enough.’’
Herrick, meanwhile, doesn’t have a particular message for the activists or organisations that attack the job he loves doing.
‘‘They have their opinion and they’re entitled to that, I guess. They don’t care what they do to farmers, they have one ulterior motive in their minds and we’re never going to change that.’’
But he does have a simple message for his fellow farmers up and down the country.
‘‘Be proud of what you do and keep it positive. You’re doing a good job.’’