Forget the red tape - farming has only got itself to blame for its crises
Emily Tuhi-Ao Bailey, is an ecologist and community organiser from Taranaki. For a countering view on the debate over the future of farming, read Jacqueline Rowarths article, When regulations push farmers out of farming, we need a new approach . OPINION: Last week hundreds of farmers burned their way across the country to Waikato for this years sustainable farming fest, Fieldays. And there, farmer lobby group Federated Farmers launched their 12 policy priorities for the next government , calling for politicians to stop tying farms up in red tape and impractical regulations. Their acting president, Wayne Langford, essentially said he wants non-farmers to get out of the way and let us do what we do best farming ; and that regulation should be left to individual farmers and the companies they supply to be led by the market and the expectations of their communities. Yet, agriculture remains our single worst climate polluting industry , with dairy at number one. Healthy lakes and wetlands, and many areas of indigenous forest are dwindling under the 5% mark. Waterways, fisheries and reefs are under serious threat as fertiliser and effluent spreading, and riparian fencing and planting on farms is done poorly and frankly, too little too late for all the harm the deforestation and intensive farming has already caused. If farmers think environmental regulations are their biggest problem, they are not seeing the bigger crises over their heads. Cyclones Gabrielle and Hale cost the country around an estimated $15 billion and that was just one season. The climate crisis will see this increase year after year across the country, with rising or unobtainable insurance on top of other related crises such as rising fuel prices, recessions and poor mental health, unless emissions are drastically reduced right now. The best way to reduce emissions is to stop industrial farming. When you look around our rural provinces, getting out of industrial farming is exactly what most farmers kids and grandkids have done, including me. This is not because of red tape. This is because of long, hard, poorly paid, isolated, uninspiring and unethical work, alongside the shift from small whanau farms to megafarms with absent owners. This disaster by design is driven by the industrys terrible economic model of extracting more and more profit from the environment and workers, while not putting back enough to sustain them. Just look around farming communities now. Where are the large groups of young, fit adults? Where are the amicable youth at social events? Very few here, thats for sure. If the youth leave and the industry provides for fewer and fewer workers each year, the communities die. Its a no brainer, but hey, lets blame some red tape. But maybe technology can save us. Or importing cheap migrant workers who want to escape worse conditions in their poor countries, can save us. All this does is push more locals out and enslave migrants to a racist provincial economy run by Remuera tractor drivers living in their mansions far away from the mud, sweat and cowpats. At the heart of it all is an industry built on land theft, racism and control of decision-making by small groups of asset-rich landowners with ideas imported from white Europe with their delusions of superiority, patriarchy and righteous greed. As we experience another recession, we should take heed of calls for ending imports (and exports) and buy, grow and make things we need locally. We should balance the economy by taxing incomes that leech off rather than contribute to our society, such as profit-making from inheritances, land leases and housing rents. Yes, there are some complications in there such as Maori-owned land with multiple disconnected owners, and the growing need for social housing and good kaitiaki. Generally speaking though, if you are a land or multiple-home owner with concerns for the future of our planet and communities, dont wait for politicians or the market to try and solve things. You can do a lot of good by selling or gifting your excess assets to those that need them, or transitioning your land to native forestry, regenerative horticulture and social housing. There are many already doing this. We need more to join them urgently. Dont wait until its too late.