Two robust meetings on November 20 and 21 in Ashburton attracted farmers affected by MPI actions in managing their herds suspected of having M bovis. I was asked to help organise the first one with a local MP and chair the second one organised by local Federated Farmers representatives and many industry leaders including federation board members and the MPI heads.
I was going to let news reporters tell the story on the results of the meetings and not get involved in any discussion on them until Gwyn, in a radio interview, deviated from the general consensus of the meeting.
The meeting was nothing more than a report card on MPI’s handling of the eradication and the effects on farmer mental welfare over the last 15 months.
As farmers told their stories of the inaccuracies of information to them and from their case managers back to MPI, the mental anguish that poor people skills, a lack of knowledge and poor time management had put on them there were not many in the room who were not moved emotionally.
The result of the report card was a big fat F as far as farmers were concerned with facts and emotions to back up the result given.
To his credit Smith took it all on board and having been in the role for only a short time gave assurances he will fix it.
He has gained the support of farmers for now and they await his actions to improve the process from infection through to being able to restock and resume life as close to possible as it once was.
However, the clock is ticking.
The relationship between Mid Canterbury farmers and the board members of Federated Farmers is also under some pressure with the lack of contact and presence shown by Chris Lewis and the national board in Canterbury since the first outbreak meetings.
Lewis also made a huge gaffe in the meeting with a statement that alluded to the softly-softly approach it seems the federation board must take with government departments to stay onside and be able to have an open-door policy across the issues and advocate on involving the primary industry.
Farmers are asking how a farmer advocate organisation such as Federated Farmers can advocate with passion and resolve if they are worried about having doors slammed in their face when dealing with politicians and government departments.
The farmers at the meeting have since let the local division know they are less than impressed with both Lewis’s gaffe and the board on their lack of involvement but compliment the locals for some of their work to date.
Gwyn, in the radio interview, said one of the issues faced by MPI is that farmers are kings of their own castles and now they have a business partner in MPI.
I suggest that if we look at who the true partners of farmers are in this saga it’s the banks and rural support industries. Most farmers are very complimentary about them.
Farmers have accused Gwyn of lying and that has been demonstrated by tit-for-tat interviews between local infected property owner Matt Walker and Gwyn.
The reporting of the eradication process by MPI to mainstream media can be proved to be full of inaccuracies because MPI has taken a narcissistic approach to date and won’t take advice to repair the holes in the eradication and testing process, which it has been notified of by past staff and farmers experienced in how farming systems work, instead choosing to blame the issues on a defective Nait system and farmers lethargic use of it.
Mid Canterbury farmers have set up an action group to work directly with Smith and a support network including a Facebook page where newly affected farmers can go with questions on the process and get farmer-to-farmer support.
Their frustrations have come to a boiling point and as much as they can they will work hard to support Smith as he sorts out this mess he has inherited as he takes over a department that has lost the support of many farmers.
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