Fonterra milk supply director Steve Murphy said although farmers dismissed the idea of bonus payments for those achieving environmental targets the discussion was extremely positive in that they want to see suppliers move en masse. Farmers preferred a system that was clear about what has to be achieved, he said.
They want to know what the targets are, what the deadlines are to achieve them and for the co-operative and wider industry to work with them to get there. An incentive scheme could run the risk of people choosing not to participate.
“That’s where farmers at the meetings were at. They preferred that universal kind of approach rather than trying to manipulate some sort of premium that then has the added complication of how we ascertain if someone deserves the premium or not,” he said.
“They were more about all being in this together and that they should all be producing in a way that’s acceptable to consumers. It was a great message from farmers.”
Ten years ago the gate may have been shut on that kind of conversation, he said. There was discussion around whether the tools Fonterra has in its toolkit were stringent enough to deal with those few who flagrantly didn’t adhere to set standards, he said. The message from farmers was that the co-op needed to work hard to manage them and bring them up to the standards everyone else was meeting.
Nestlé head of agriculture Hans Johr spoke to farmers at the roadshow in a pre-recorded video about consumer expectations. He’s responsible for ensuring sustainable raw materials for the Nestlé supply chain and said consumers were no longer just interested in the physical aspects of their food such as taste or texture. He said the company wanted to know where and how it was produced and that it was produced to an ethical standard whether that was with respect to animal welfare, environment or even human resource management and how people working on farms were treated.
Murphy said it was interesting to see how closely aligned the issues consumers deem as important are with the issues farmers have been working towards in this country. Stock exclusions from waterways, water quality and nutrient management all featured.
“We may not always be happy with the interpretation of consumers’ needs and wants but they are the basis for many of our regulatory requirements,” Murphy said.
Fonterra farmers were given a pat on the back for the efforts they’ve been making with environmental management at Fonterra’s sustainability roadshow.
Accomplishments included:
• 90% waterways fenced/stock excluded (22,000km).
• Effluent management compliance across the co-op greatly improved.
• 23% reduction in effluent issues referred from the co-op’s onfarm assessments.
• About 4000 effluent issues resolved with farmers.
• Fonterra capturing nitrogen data, modelling losses and providing that information back to farmers with benchmark information.
