A question of scale

It takes great courage to write a strong opinion piece, and I applaud Mrs Bryan (Give us a break! June 28), for doing so. I understand and sympathise with her.

However, it seems the message is not going through and this is so frustrating.

We are not against farming and/or horticulture. What we are against is the intensity of the farming and horticulture industry. The underlying greed of both industries is the fundamental issue here. Because of their sheer size, the use of water and other resource is enormous, a strain to sustain.

The ‘them and us’ mentality is also frustrating. Like you, many of us work on the land, and actually live from it. And because of this, we understand the value of air, water and food. Many of us do not want supersize development.

It is a falsity to say large-scale farming/ horticulture produces food for New Zealand — most of it is exported. The rest is not that affordable (500g of butter at $5.50 — one avocado for $5). And how many young New Zealanders are able to afford a farm nowadays?

To be honest with you, Mrs Bryan, I’d love to be able to buy my dairy products from a local farmer employing local labour, owned locally, and using as little resource as possible. In a glass bottle, please.

This is possible to achieve, but boy, do we need a change of perspective.

A decent economy with decent well-paying jobs, while being environmentally sustainable, is not mutually exclusive. Please do not tell me you can’t make a profit on a smaller scale. If you can’t, you seriously need to redo your homework, or look to your industry for answers.

Why not the restoration of our environment as job-creation instead than the destruction of it? RENEE ´ DUMAS

Taipa