Townies should thank God for NZ's farmers

Townies need farmers to put food on their plates and should be thanking God for them, says Federated Farmers president Charlie Pedersen.

"Folks in the city need us more than they know," he told the federation's annual conference in Christchurch today.

"Three times a day as they sit down for a meal every New Zealander should say "thank God for the producers".

And he suggested than when people sat down after a meal, in front of their large flat screen TV, they should also thank God for exporters "because without them this proud little nation would be the largest third world country in the South Pacific".

Mr Pedersen, a dairy farmer, railed against the "cruelty" of Resource Management Act, which regulates environmental standards for use of land, air and water.

"Food producers are on the brink of feeling unloved and unwanted in this country," he said, speaking in the wake of complaints that the nation's 10,000 dairy farmers are being attacked for their intensive style of agriculture.

Frank Brenmuhl, the head of the federation's dairy section, told the Christchurch conference yesterday that dairy farmers are feeling hard done by, and that a key issue of the coming general election is the right of farmers to continue to produce food.

Dairy farmers were being held responsible for greenhouse gas emissions that the could do little about without reducing food production, he said.

Mr Pedersen said today there were untruthful people who would brand farmers as "profit-driven people, unconcerned about our environmental footprint".

"Much of the contempt we face as food producers is falsely based," he said. He particularly criticised the "hypocrisy" of consumers living in unsustainable cities who demanded farmers accept responsibility for the environmental effects of production.

He said smart New Zealand farmers were now investing in North and South America, Australia and Africa.

Not only were they exporting New Zealand's future investments but also the agricultural sector's intellectual property.

"New Zealand is losing capital, intellectual and financial," he said. The dairy boom was the one positive thing preventing the New Zealand economy drifting into recession: "Greenies might not care about their standard of living but I think most families do".

He called for New Zealanders to not tolerate the "unfairness" of the RMA, and encourage the Government to change it.

Another approach would be for consumers to share the cost of Kyoto and a better environment by paying an extra tax on all food.

"The proceeds of this tax could be used to help New Zealand food producers to buy carbon credits and compensate for property loss under the RMA," suggested Mr Pedersen.

"Such a tax would have the double benefit of keeping New Zealand food producers viable and still producing in New Zealand, and allowing all New Zealanders to share the responsibility".

Other commentators have pointed out that taxpayers are already subsidising farmers by $1.3 billion during the first Kyoto commitment period, because farmers have been exempted from responsibility for the greenhouse gas emissions from their livestock until 2012.

Methane from farm livestock makes up about a third of the nation's total emissions.

NZPA