Groundswell was founded in 2020 to mitigate a wave of "unworkable" farming regulations launched by the government beginning about 2018.
Over the last six weeks, the group has been responding to the New Zealand Taxonomy movement, a proposal before ministers to classify farming, business and other activity in terms of "sustainability".
"Their ‘sustainable’ means in terms of climate emissions," Mr McKenzie said.
"They want to set farms a target of one tonne of CO2 emissions per hectare then classify each farm as green, amber or red.
"Green means ‘determined to be sustainable’, amber could ‘transition into being sustainable’ and red they recommend gets ‘transitioned out of agriculture’."
New Zealand Taxonomy is being promoted by the Centre for Sustainable Finance (CSF) in partnership with the government.
The vision is for "a financial system that is more resilient, inclusive, robust and agile through the incorporation of environmental, social and economic considerations in financial decisions".
"Sheep and beef farmers are around 3.9 tonnes now, and dairy are 9 to 11 tonnes per hectare.
"If you close down all these farms, where is the food going to come from? That’s we mean when we say ‘unworkable’."
New Zealand was acknowledged as a world leader in sustainable farming practice, and Groundswell argued New Zealand Taxonomy would damage the country’s primary industry economy.
In 2022, Ministry for Primary Industries predicted 650,000ha of sheep and beef farmland would be converted into forestry under the present Emission Trading Scheme by 2050, which could potentially impact New Zealand’s 92,000 red-meat industry jobs.
On its website, the Centre for Sustainable Finance, said "there’s commentary lately making inaccurate claims about the New Zealand Taxonomy".
"Let’s be clear: the taxonomy is not about compliance or telling farmers how to run their businesses. It is a voluntary, market-led tool to help investors identify ‘green’ or ‘sustainable’ activities in New Zealand. It’s about growing access to global capital, not adding green tape. ‘Taxonomy’ simply means classification — nothing to do with tax."
"The New Zealand government has objectives of doubling the value of exports while staying in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement, growing and building resilience into the economy.
"The New Zealand Taxonomy is about growing New Zealand access to global capital and markets."
• Groundswell is also campaigning for "proper public debate" over the Gene Technology Bill, now under consideration by the Health Committee.
The Bill’s purpose is to "enable the safe use of gene technology and regulated organisms in New Zealand".
Mr McKenzie said the bill had "one or two things that could be a benefit, but in a lot of ways I can see [the Bill] being detrimental to our international reputation that sells New Zealand’s products overseas".
He said at the very least the bill should also be considered by the Primary Production Committee, who understood the impact genetic technology could have on food production and markets.
