Nelson Federated Farmers Update

The provinces 78^thAnnual General Meeting, recently held in Murchison, was a relaxed, family friendly social night, with Murchison’s Rural Women group putting on a mouth-watering home cooked meal that was enjoyed by all.

Stephen Todd, who was re-elected as Provincial President, thanked the small handful of committee members, chairs and supporting parties that contribute to regular meetings and events enabling the region to continue to have an active Federated Farmers branch. Stephen also highlighted Federated Farmers clear stance on He Waka Eke Noa and reminded everyone that farmers can have confidence that feds will stick firmly to these following bottom lines and won’t accept anything that doesn’t meet them:

1) We won’t support emissions pricing until there has been a review of the current methane reduction targets that takes the different warming impact of methane into account. Our current methane targets are unrealistic, unscientific, and go further than is needed to stop farming’s contribution to warming.

2) We will only support pricing for the purpose of incentivising the uptake of viable mitigation options. Anything else is just a tax on a productive sector who don’t have options. Because Kiwi farmers are already the world’s most emissions efficient producers of milk and meat, we are going to need new tools and technology to support further reductions.

3) We won’t support emission pricing if it’s just going to lead to what is called ‘emissions leakage’. It makes absolutely no sense to reduce our production here, only for the gap in the market to be filled by a less emission efficient producer.  That will just ruin our economy while increasing global emissions.

Long time Meat and Wool Chair Kerry Irvine reported on his concern around the urban / rural divide and how undervalued he feels New Zealand farmers are.  ‘I remember seeing a Facebook post, FARMING - the art of losing money while working 400 hours a month to feed people who think you are trying to kill them. The world we are creating is one of real concern to me. The urban divide is all too real. The misunderstanding of what we do and why we do it is all too real. We’re good at farming but not good at telling our story.

The products we produce, our roots to the land, the story that has built New Zealand, an industry that’s a world leader in grass fed products with the lowest carbon footprint in the world. The products we produce are world leading and that’s a story we need to celebrate.’  

Many related to Kerry’s report and these shared concerns brought attention to the fact there has never been a more important time for the need of independent rural advocacy organisations such as Federated Farmers.  The meeting finished with an informal talk from Gavin Forrest, Chief Advisor at Federated Farmers, who has over thirty years’ experience working in the policy and advocacy space for farmers, growers and their communities.

In response to the continued challenges from the significant flooding event last year in the Murchison area the province has made a generous donation to a Murchison rafting company to assist in the clean-up of balage wrap, from lost feed, that has that ended up in the river and on the riverbank. With adverse events in mind the province encourages all famers and growers to take time to explore how they can get ready for inevitable future events, including assessing the location of stored feed – is there a more suitable location with less risk of losing feed in a flood situation?

Regarding this year’s Budget Federated Farmers asked for ‘absolutely nothing’, and it’s safe to say the Government has exceeded expectations on that front with no new spending for farmers. Instead, what was requested was that the Government stop weighing hard working farmers and growers down with impractical, unpragmatic, and unfair regulations. Federated Farmers will be calling on all political parties to announce how they plan to do that in the lead up to the 2023 General Election.