Thursday, March 28, 2024

ALTERNATIVE VIEW: Sector can’t ignore Koi Tu report

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I’ve read many reports over the years about the primary sector and our future. Many were deservedly consigned to the scrap heap. Others arrived in a blaze of glory for the same ultimate destination. Few survived.
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I read one last week that was exceptional. 

It was the Koi Tu report, The future of food and the primary sector: The journey to sustainability.

Unlike many of the reports that were several hundred pages long, this is just 18. 

It doesn’t waste a word or dodge an issue.

The authors are all heavyweight experts from the public and private sectors from here and overseas. Professor Stephen Goldson from Lincoln University contributed. He was previously principal scientist and chief science strategist at AgResearch. In addition many local farming leaders were interviewed.

We read how covid-19 will see a revitalised farming sector with a high global reputation from being covid-free.

We need an integrated strategy with a common set of goals. Getting everyone on the same downbeat to achieve that will be difficult but necessary.

The report goes further. “It is critical that Government agencies take a coordinated partnership approach with scientists, producers and manufacturers to support and encourage the food and production industries’ journey towards a resilient future.”

So, it isn’t just talking about producers and their groups. It is everyone involved in food production and that will involve transparency, openness, co-operation and leadership.

We haven’t had that.

It isn’t my intention to analyse the report bit by bit. It was covered in Farmers Weekly and you can read it on the Koi Tu website. I strongly suggest you do.

I will, however, outline some of the issues I think need action and discussion.

For a start, we are entering a post-covid world where life will be vastly different to what it was. We know that.

Partly because we are covid free and partly because we have a dynamic food production system New Zealand can farm its way out of the malaise.

The issue is we can’t continue by farming as we have in the past. 

Yes, our farmers are good stewards of the land, as the report acknowledges. And our record on innovation is second to none but the world is quickly changing and we must change with it.

That will involve considerable reform of our farming systems. 

The report says global food production systems in their present form have been viewed as unsustainable in the face of climate change, biodiversity loss, ecological degradation and an ever-increasing demand for food volumes.

Change will require, amongst other things, both irrigation and genetic modification. 

For the record and before Greenpeace starts ripping bodices, high-value crops need a reliable water supply and irrigation is pivotal for that.

Irrigation doesn’t just mean more cows as farming’s opponents would have us believe.

I’ve written often about GM and the reply has always been that having GM will affect our markets. If that is indeed the case much of the world including the United States would have markets affected by now.

The report says GM can happily work alongside organics. It also suggests that if we’re serious about mitigating methane emissions we need GM.

That is the harsh reality.

We can be assured by the reports’ observation NZ farming is very different from intensive, grain-fed, barn-reared animal systems. Our grazing systems are very low energy and produce low amounts of greenhouse gas per unit of production relative to pastoral systems elsewhere.

What we need first is a strategy that involves the entire food production sector. Everyone needs to buy into it.

Then we need a national brand.

Following that we need a reformed science system that looks at the medium to long term and is scientifically not financially led. I’ve written often about our shambolic science network that desperately needs reform.

We need, as I’ve written, a single organisation representing all parts of food production. Egos and patch protection must be sidelined for industry good. 

The report tells me if we do the right things we can move forward with confidence, we can become carbon efficient, mitigate climate change and we can survive and prosper in light of competition from artificial foods.

It will take commitment and, more importantly, leadership but it can be done. 

I hope the Government and the Opposition read the report and act on it. Throwing buckets of money at tourism won’t provide any return in the short to medium term. Investing money in food production will.

I also hope the food production and processing sectors start debating the issues and planning the future.

So far Feds has welcomed and embraced the report. Every other primary sector organisation has ignored it.

That’s wrong and a disservice to the entire industry.

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