The big disconnect
Monday, 19 May 2008
By Charlie Pederson, President Federated Farmers
It was not that long ago that New Zealand was regarded as one big farm. A place where town and country frequently mingled and understood each other. It was common for townie kids to have holidays on the farm of their country cousins.
Today that has all gone and it’s almost happened overnight. Suddenly there is a generation of people who live in the city and who have no contact, let alone any idea of what is happening outside the city limits down on the farm. They are generation who have relationship with their supermarket or fast food outlet. Some will struggle to describe what a lamb looks like, let along know the obvious difference between the merino and romney. This lack of understanding of the rural sector worries me and other food producers. New Zealanders are happy to enjoy the relatively comfortable lifestyle that the export of food products provides, but many are at best ambivalent and in some cases, antagonistic towards the rural sector. This disconnect is sad because in a wider sense New Zealander’s have a natural love of the outdoors and many of the pristine environments that they enjoy are due to the hard work of farmers. If people had closer links to the land I am sure that we would not get some of the poor outcomes that arise from the Resource Management Act. There are people working for government departments and local councils who make decisions which seem alright when you are sitting in an office in the city. But decisions not only have be ideologically based, they have to work. The RMA was not put in place to stop farming and turn New Zealand into one great tourist park. Yet there are policies and regulations being put in place which severely restrain ,and have the potential to economically cripple individual food producers. While I acknowledge that many people in the community are suffering hard times caused by rising food and prices, farmers are also being caught up in this same scenario. We buy most of our food too and we notice the cost of the petrol for the long distances that we drive. Many of our basic costs such as fertiliser have doubled in cost in a year. Urban and rural New Zealanders have different challenges and only when both sides have a better appreciation of each others problems will sanity prevail. Farmers accept we have allowed the divide between rural and urban to deepen and need to urgently reconnect with our urban cousins, and encourage them to visit us down on the farm. Proudly sponsored by
Federated Farmers
Call 0800 327 646
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