Friday, 31 December 2021 14:25

Editorial: Stronger advocacy!

Written by  Staff Reporters
The continuing impact of Covid, soaring input costs, labour shortages and ever growing regulation continued to steal much of the shine off good prices. The continuing impact of Covid, soaring input costs, labour shortages and ever growing regulation continued to steal much of the shine off good prices.

OPINION: As 2021 draws to a close, most farmers will be looking forward to it ending and hoping for better things in 2022.

Strong commodity prices and good growing conditions, on the whole, have meant a reasonable year for most of the country's farmers and growers. However, the continuing impact of Covid, soaring input costs, labour shortages and ever growing regulation continued to steal much of the shine off good prices.

During the year, for the first time in a generation, farmers and rural people in their tens of thousands took to the streets in towns and cities - not once but twice - up and down New Zealand to express their concerns and consternation about where things are going for people living in the country. All at a time of near record milk payouts, horticulture and red meat returns.

Surely this points to something seriously wrong going on. However, those in the Government, bureaucracy and parts of our farming leadership appear either oblivious or downright scornful of this justified farmer angst.

Much of the blame for this can be fairly sheeted home to the levy bodies, which seem to have made little to no effort to get proper farmer mandates before taking their advocacy positions.

It seems their desire to "be at the table" to share drinks and canapés with current Government ministers has taken priority over properly advocating for their farmer levypayers. These organisations have pretty much 'lost the room' with regards to grassroots farmer support and hence the emergence of an outfit like Groundswell. One suspects that the information the Prime Minister is currently refusing to release about that rural lobby group has been garnered from sources within these levy bodies and is highly derisory.

It will be interesting to see how those bodies react if the looming carbon emissions regulation and targets for the agricultural sector are roundly rejected by their levypayers during the rounds of consultation early next year. Will they kowtow to the Government - as they have over the past four years - or finally stand up and fight for what farmers demand?

Despite this, they have shown some backbone in advocating for the split-gas approach (treating methane separately to long-lived gases) and the opportunity to develop a sector solution in He Waka Eka Noa.

Roll on 2022 and better, stronger sector advocacy!

More like this

Editorial: Goodbye 2024

OPINION: In two weeks we'll bid farewell to 2024. Dubbed by some as the toughest season in a generation, many farmers would be happy to put the year behind them.

2022 - the year in review

As 2022 draws to a close, many farmers will be looking for a fresh start in 2023. Many rural people feel that the past year was difficult one where they were constantly under the gun. In this retrospective, Leo Argent highlights some of the highs and lows of another year in the rural sector.

The year in review

As 2021 draws to a close and 2022 approaches, Leo Argent takes a look back at the year gone by, reviewing some of the major stories that appeared in Rural News which shaped farming industry news this year.

Featured

Australia develops first local mRNA FMD vaccine

Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks could have a detrimental impact on any country's rural sector, as seen in the United Kingdom's 2000 outbreak that saw the compulsory slaughter of over six million animals.

NZ household food waste falls again

Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.

Editorial: No joking matter

OPINION: Sir Lockwood Smith has clearly and succinctly defined what academic freedom is all about, the boundaries around it and the responsibility that goes with this privilege.

DairyNZ plantain trials cut nitrate leaching by 26%

DairyNZ says its plantain programme continues to deliver promising results, with new data confirming that modest levels of plantain in pastures reduce nitrogen leaching, offering farmers a practical, science-backed tool to meet environmental goals.

National

Machinery & Products

Tech might take time

Agritech Unleashed – a one-day event held recently at Mystery Creek, near Hamilton – focused on technology as an ‘enabler’…

John Deere acquires GUSS Automation

John Deere has announced the full acquisition of GUSS Automation, LLC, a globally recognised leader in supervised high-value crop autonomy,…

Fencing excellence celebrated

The Fencing Contractors Association of New Zealand (FCANZ) celebrated the best of the best at the 2025 Fencing Industry Awards,…

» Latest Print Issues Online

The Hound

A step too far

OPINION: For years, the ironically named Dr Mike Joy has used his position at Victoria University to wage an activist-style…

Save us from SAFE

OPINION: A mate of yours truly has had an absolute gutsful of the activist group SAFE.

» Connect with Rural News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter