The survey itself came out towards the end of last year but hasn’t garnered much attention.
My interest was piqued by Wallace’s pieces so I’ve also had a look at the survey.
I was interested to know why the survey was done in the first place, which is to see how opinions have changed since the benchmark survey in 2008.
It says its objectives are about gaining an in-depth understanding of the beliefs and values held across both urban and rural New Zealanders regarding the primary sector including agriculture, horticulture, food, fishing, aquaculture and forestry.
And it explores and identifies paths in the development of those beliefs and values. Not surprisingly, that is through the filter of mainstream media.
I now remember writing a piece on that earlier survey and probably being slightly industry self-congratulatory as both rural and urban respondents were very positive towards pastoral farming industries at a time when we in the rural sector had formed the view our city mates didn’t think much of us.
Back then 83% of rural respondents and 78% of urban dwellers had a positive view of farming. Our sectors weren’t broken down in that original survey but now 63% of rural and 59% of urban respondents have a positive view towards sheep and beef farming and 50% of rural and 47% of urban hold a positive view of dairying.
That’s a big drop over the decade but not unexpected as we farmers have not been feeling the love as we watch the debate about our sector through the lens of the mainstream media.
We have been frustrated in recent years where the media’s sole focus has been on rural waterways when we have known that urban ones are as bad if not worse.
That has changed this hot summer, particularly with reporting around Auckland’s waterways delivering contaminants into the sea where they swim and onto their beaches where they frolic. These streams don’t come from a dairy area but are fed by the stormwater system that sluices through Auckland.
Perhaps now there is a growing understanding by all Kiwis that water quality is an issue we all affect and that it is something we all need to do something about instead of just finger-pointing.
The survey shows only 40% of both rural and urban have a positive view of the fishing industry but, interestingly, horticulture has seen the urban positive view increase from 60% to 66% over the decade. The reasons given that weren’t in 2008 were because the industry is booming and is not hard on the environment.
Surprising, given much of the horticultural land surrounds large urban environments but the city folk appear unaware of the water use from aquifers and chemicals applied on their doorstep.
A good finding of the survey was that the vast majority of New Zealanders are concerned about the threat of pests and diseases.
Both urban and rural respondents put a high level of responsibility on all parts of society for helping to protect NZ from the entry or spread of pests and diseases.
It suggests all New Zealanders believe prevention is better than dealing with an incursion and that most are willing to participate in passive surveillance.
So, we have some strong common ground on that one with our city mates.
