MASTER CLASS :a bright future
Farming
Liz Evans National President, Rural Women New Zealand
NEW ZEALAND FARMING OWNED and operated by Kiwi families and companies? Or New Zealand farming owned and partially operated by people
from off-shore? Fact is, a lot of primary production, and the land used to achieve
it, is already in the hands of investors from other parts of the world – especially in the wine, forestry and dairying sectors. Go to any rural town which services these activities and you will
see communities of migrant workers established there to produce our goods. For many of these workers, especially from the Pacific, most of their earnings are sent home, as are the profits from the overseas- owned companies that employ them. New Zealanders' increasing ambivalence towards investment in land-based industries needs addressing now.
The choice is clear: either we accept that foreign investment is now crucial to facilitate our borrowing and social spending, or we get determined to independently invest in our own country and its resources – and pay for that spending ourselves.
The choice is clear: either we accept that foreign investment is
now crucial to facilitate our borrowing and social spending, or we get determined to independently invest in our own country and its resources – and pay for that spending ourselves. Farmers, and the communities that support them, can and do
produce the exports vital to financing this country. Statistics NZ's most recent list of top 10 commodity exports starts
with dairy, meat, and wood products as the first three. Fruit is at number six, fish seven and wine eight. Wouldn't it be great if, in five years' time, our society had adopted
more of a Team New Zealand approach to land and water use? And if the stalemate between environmental regulatory extremism and the need to maintain viable commercial production had been recognised and sorted? Kiwis now have the opportunity through State asset sales to make
their own investments in a range of our land-based industries and the infrastructural businesses, such as electricity and irrigation, needed to make them profitable. If we don't, someone else, somewhere else, will. New Zealand has already sold many of our assets by becoming one
of the most indebted countries in the world. We have no option but to pay the piper.
54 | www.hermagazine.co.nz
