Friday, March 29, 2024

Knowing numbers will help define sustainability

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The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) has started to probe how, and how much, New Zealand’s key markets value sustainability as a critical global food summit aimed at defining it looms. MPI director of international policy Phil Houlding told delegates at this year’s red meat sector conference that “knowing our numbers” would be a good start when negotiating with trading nations on definitions.
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The United Nations Food System conference planned for New York later this year will attempt to define “sustainability” in food systems and how to best measure it across 17 goal areas.

Houlding says NZ was well-positioned to capitalise on the summit’s where rhetoric and absence of data are likely to be notable features.

“It is a good opportunity for us to take a pragmatic, data-based approach to this. There is a gap for us to walk into here,” Holding said.

Those numbers will relate to greenhouse gas (GHG) calculations, an area NZ was doubling down on in light of He Waka Eka Noa’s requirements for all NZ farms to have recorded their GHG emissions by the end of next year.

However, NZ needed to be cognisant that food security and scarcity remains a living memory for many countries, and while NZ as a whole may be addressing carbon, these other countries were not so engaged as they continued to work to maintain, or improve, their food security first.

Another feature of what he described as a “massive and hard to negotiate” summit was the role of indigenous people in food systems.

“Generally, when you hear about indigenous people and food systems, it goes to subsistence. But here in NZ we have Māori engagement right across the food system, with scale,” he said.

Houlding provided an update on trade positions, coming at a time when NZ could afford to be more selective and demanding about the types of trade agreements it struck with partner countries.

He was encouraged by support from the United Kingdom for a repurposing of agricultural subsidies, with an acknowledgement about the environmental impact subsidies have, and their impact upon developing countries’ ability to expand their food producing economies.

“There is a view that subsidies are public money that should be for public good. It will be interesting to see where they take that,” he said.

The touted Agriculture Bill is seen as a departure from previous subsidy policy under the EU.

It is a “strings attached approach” and means farmers will only get state aid if they deliver outcomes everyone benefits from but are not usually paid for, such as clean air, water, biodiversity and landscape access.

The Bill has, however, also been slammed by environmentalists for its lack of action on unsustainable practices.

He was optimistic greater understanding of subsidies’ environmental costs would also put the spotlight back on the World Trade Organisation; long moribund and limited in its prosecuting capabilities.

Concern around sustainability came as global hunger levels have risen in the past three years to about 700 million people.

Expectations are this is likely to rise with covid impacting countries’ ability to supply needy populations.

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