They come with ideas that sound workable but in practise turn out to be well less so. Their greatest ability is to ignore the realities which contradict the theory.
This is never more the case than when the politics of the environment (see rural NZ) are dissected. Our Government overrides and/or ignores the overwhelming success of the primary sector’s capacity to produce at a level which supplies significant capital for our health, education and welfare sectors to meet much of the needs of our wider society.
This is a result of the constant rational application to change which now seems to have been set aside in favour of a more "natural" process without the use of science.
So, what chance do the growers, developers and manufactures have to provide for this nation into the future if Government believes that more tax actually can act as an incentive.
The folk who are the new experts live in the cities. They have never actually grown or made anything from a strawberry to a sausage.
All the right people with experience and knowledge are now the wrong people to listen to, or so growers are told. Something to do with other people’s values. The rise and rise of the environmental puritan increasingly influences those in authority.
In the past, synthetic fertiliser has provided nutrient aplenty to help the young plant to produce. We are now told such fertiliser is bad.
The natural way of growing things is best and more in keeping with nature — or so we are told by those who promote that the natural way of growing things is the right way.
Most people die from natural causes which is why we should steer clear of naturally grown foods as one wit once observed — and with more than a grain of truth. (See E coli O157 found in compost.)
New Zealand has very young soils which are lacking in so many essential trace elements including phosphate.
It is correct that the Government’s preferred regenerative agriculture works but only if we are prepared to accept a 50% reduction in our productive capacity over the ensuing years.
Meanwhile, traditional pastoral farming continues to add organic matter (carbon) to the soil — only to be taxed for doing so. A 5000-stock unit property will be required to pay $8,500 at a time when lamb and mutton has fallen by 50%.
The use of any chemical sprays as bad for the environment is the common mantra of the environmental lobby group. This, despite killing off viruses that are even worse.
Some of us will remember reading years ago about aflatoxin. Such unwanted organisms grew on edible plants in certain weather conditions and required synthetic sprays being applied to the plants at the right time to make them safe to eat.
The condition in the Middle Ages was called St Anthony’s Fire and caused limbs to rot. Many will recall from memory about someone selling unsprayed zucchinis at a market. That vegetable put a lot of people in hospital and became known as the killer zucchinis.
Strangely, the government at the time did not insist that they take over food production as they have with water, due to a few people being admitted to hospital in Havelock North. That situation really was an easy fix.
Transgenic is still a word spoken of in hushed tones in NZ society due to political allegiances wrongly insisting that the science behind GM is yet to be proven. The climate science is (apparently) proven but GM is not, so the fear of being ridiculed keeps most of us silent, but not all. (GM science has been contracted out by NZ to Australia and has been for years.)
The continued to use of plastic is bad, or so we are told yet plastic piping is one of the greatest advantages we all benefit from. Lead and galvanised pipes can still be manufactured if needed.
Thanks to the environmental puritans, led by Minister David Parker, in stream users (fish and other aquatic life) now rank much higher on the scale of things than growers according to the Minister of all things environmental.
Hydro electrical generation is totally important and at a reasonable price. Our Government owns around 50% of a lot of hydro electricity generators who naturally enough need lots of water in their rivers. The Government receives healthy dividends from the generators. Such matters were once called a conflict of interest, but what used to be called a principled approach to decision making doesn’t seem to apply anymore.
Should Government continue down this pathway to artificially created food shortages (eggs) — the parable of the little red hen comes to mind but then school children will likely have no idea of what a parable is, even those who bother to attend school. That is another story for another day.
Most understand well that monopolies are bad for a country’s economy, yet governments are absolute natural monopolies with no constraints on their authority, even over our fragile democracy. Ah well we get what we vote for.
— Gerrard Eckhoff is a retired Central Otago farmer and former Otago regional councillor and Act New Zealand MP.
