Opportunities come from change.
That is the message from Justin Sherrard, general manager of Rabobank Food and Agribusiness Research and Advisory, for Australia and New Zealand.
Mr Sherrard, who leads a team of food and agribusiness specialists, is responsible for Rabobank's analysis and activities concerning carbon, climate change and broader sustainability issues.
He was in Oamaru recently speaking to groups of professionals and farmers about New Zealand's emissions trading scheme and what it means for the food and agribusiness sector.
In a Rabobank confidence survey in Australia in the last quarter of last year, farmers were asked their level of knowledge on climate change and emissions trading and, irrespective of their knowledge, if they were happy with what they knew.
More than 50% said they had a low level of knowledge and more than 60% said they wanted to know more.
Those results indicated it was an issue of which people were aware, but their level of knowledge was "not that great" and they wanted to know more, Mr Sherrard said.
With the emissions trading scheme in New Zealand to start on July 1, "big change" was under way and the impact would be felt across all sectors of the economy.
Governments around the world are moving on the carbon issue but markets are also moving.
Walmart, the world's largest retailer, intends cutting carbon out of its supply chain.
It has launched a new sustainability product index cutting emissions along the supply chain and will reward suppliers who cut emissions.
Tesco, the fourth-largest food retailer in the world, has carbon labels on more than 100 of its products, which reveal the total lifecycle carbon emissions, meaning consumers can make choices in the supermarket.
The Japanese Government introduced a carbon-labelling scheme in 2008.
More than 30 companies have engaged in the process and the first certified products are now available.
In New Zealand, it was very difficult to cut carbon without focusing on agriculture, Mr Sherrard said.
When asked how the invoicing for carbon emissions was going to work with farmers, Mr Sherrard said no stand-alone invoicing system would occur.
It would only be via processors (such as meat companies and Fonterra) and they would have their own systems through which their suppliers would pay for their on-farm emissions - and the processors would pass that on to the ETS.
To prepare for the ETS, the food and agribusiness sector needed to ensure it understood how the scheme worked and its associated risks and opportunities, engage effectively in the policy process (two reviews are due before agricultural emissions come under the ETS), understand the mechanics of carbon pricing options to pass increased costs downstream, explore opportunities and ensure sufficient investment in innovation.
It was a process of change and there were always opportunities around change.
People needed to take a balanced view of both the risks and the opportunities.
New Zealand farmers had proved their ability, over decades, to respond positively to change and also to increasing productivity.
It could be an opportunity for the food and agribusiness sector, Mr Sherrard said.