Tenure ends for Feds leader
South Canterbury farmer and science industry leader William Rolleston steps down from his role as Federated Farmers national president on Thursday and shortly after either vice-president Anders Crofoot or board member Katie Milne will be elected in his place.
Rolleston had always been less of a strident activist in the name of farming, more a strong advocate for the value of science and argument based on hard evidence.
‘‘We need to put science to the fore and have evidence-based arguments to make ourselves [Federated Farmers] credible,’’ he said.
Rolleston said the way farmers had taken on the need to improve the environment had been one of the successes of his term.
‘‘It’s important farmers have joined the conversation on the effects of farming on the environment rather than just resisting the moves for change. We want to be part of the solution and I think we have moved towards that,’’ he said.
‘‘If we just push back at the regulators and don’t engage and get ourselves offside with everyone else in the industry because we have an unsubstantiated view, then what can happen is we end up with regulation that way overshoots what is required and people are stuck with it for a long while.’’
He said farmers had a role to play with climate change but also needed to provide food for people. Solutions needed to be found to maximise both these issues which were built into the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
‘‘The best mitigating response for livestock farmers is to increase productivity, thereby decreasing the amount of carbon per kilogram of product and increasing the carbon efficiency,’’ he said.
Rolleston said New Zealand had a strength in biology so it made sense to put money into research that intersected with environmental issues.
‘‘My view is the Land and Water Forum is starting to put that science in and actually starting to show it’s not just about slashing agriculture, it’s about doing things smarter,’’ he said.
‘‘There is an ongoing issue around science and innovation in New Zealand. At the moment we’ve a much-eroded capability. This needs to be turned around - if we don’t we won’t have the skills to commercialise.’’
Rolleston thought gene editing technologies were going to be a ‘‘game changer,’’ and that included animal breeding techniques.
‘‘Our regulation regarding genetic modification (GM) is out of date and not fit for purpose. We need to think about how we make these decisions in a rational and positive way that benefits New Zealand,’’ he said.
The argument against GM was that no one would buy our product, he said. The reality was that Australia and the United States both produced GM products, but were also the biggest exporters of organic food in the world.
After his Federated Farmers term ends Rolleston will continue running his 5200 hectare Blue Cliffs Station and has a biotech company.
He has just stepped down as acting president of the World Farming Organisation (WFO).
His regret was that there hadn’t been a way found for Kiwi farmers to be recognised as custodians of the land.
‘‘How do you do that without throwing subsidies in or distorting trade?
‘‘I think that’s a really hard one to crack - it’s been in the back of my mind because I don’t think you just go, ‘hey, we are clean and green and you’re going to pay a premium for our products’, the equation just doesn’t add up.’’