As reported in Farmers Weekly’s Land Squeeze series, the Ministry for the Environment has started the process of preparing a national policy statement for high-value soils, which will be finalised after consultation later this year.
That protection is needed because urban sprawl and lifestyle blocks swallow up to 100,000 hectares a year including Auckland paving 10,500 hectares of high-quality soil in the last 35 years.
Domestic food demand will only increase as New Zealand’s population is expected to hit five million in 2020 and 5.5m in 2025 while demand will also rise from an ever-expanding global population.
The introduction by regional councils of a suite of environmental laws is going to be joined later this year by new rules and regulations from the Government likely to restrict farming practices even further.
That will make it even more difficult to shift a vegetable-growing business from Pukekohe to Waikato even if comparable elite soil can be found.
But, as our coverage revealed, there is also the challenge of protecting our sheep and beef country and the billions of export dollars it generates, which underpins our standard of living.
While there is certainly a place and a need for forestry, the Government’s carbon neutral 2050 policy could, according to the Productivity Commission require up to 2.8m hectares to be planted in trees, much of that now farmed for sheep and beef.
Of concern is the complete absence of any analysis on what such large-scale forest planting will have on rural communities let alone exports.
Hopefully, these land challenges are not symptoms of how society has become complacent about a food production system that always delivers or ignorance of our economic engine room.
The land squeeze series has highlighted that we cannot take our soils, the production of food and exported produce for granted, that all soil is not equal and urban planners and society need to take note of that fact.
