Environment call to farmers

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An Australian specialist in farm production is urging New Zealand farmers to lead the world in environmentally sustainable farming or be forced out of business within 20 years.

Barney Foran, a research fellow at the Institute of Land, Water and Society at Charles Sturt University in New South Wales, says New Zealand farmers have to realise international consumers will make more buying decisions based on environmental impact, despite the economic crisis.

Writing in a Hatuma Lime Company newsletter, sent to more than 34,000 farmers, he says consumers now want proof that what they are eating is based on environmental best practice from the farm to the supermarket.

"It's not a new idea but one that will become a reality as environmental stresses increasingly dominate headlines coupled with demand for animal products," he says.

"The average meat producer may not be in business in 20 years if ecological reality bites and becomes embodied in everyday consumer decisions."

New Zealand farmers need to develop a story that highlights the real numbers behind environmental certification, he says.

He predicts that within a decade, meat will be marketed on its greenhouse gas emissions as well as water quality, biodiversity assets and cultural values. "Tomorrow's meat enterprises will focus on product quality first, backed up by measured and low environmental impacts, austere production chains, avoidance of most chemicals and heavy metals and making farmed landscapes waterwise, biodiverse and beautiful."

The way forward is to adopt three strategic principles, he says:

To produce a sought-after product that attracts superior prices no matter what the economy or the season is doing.

To ensure farming systems remained financially viable. "Trimming of lifestyle expectation may be required along with debt reduction, less energy and chemicals, and developing flocks and herds that do the work themselves."

To develop a product story based on the use of environmental assets and a managerial oversight of the production chain.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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