Thursday, March 28, 2024

ALTERNATIVE VIEW: Hats off to PINZ

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I thoroughly enjoyed last week’s Primary Industries New Zealand (PINZ) Summit and Awards in Christchurch. The organisation was impeccable, the venue superb and the speakers were, in the main, impressive. I’ve been to many primary sector conferences over the years and they’ve certainly changed.
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In the early days they were dominated by aged males in three-piece checkered suits and brogues. You could even imagine a tear being shed for the huge subsidies of the past or the fact the UK took whatever we produced. Today, it is quite different.

This year the event was huge, there were over 550 attendees. It was also culturally and ethnically diverse, with a predominance of younger people, many of whom were women.

It was good to see and the organisation by Federated Farmers and Conferenz was professional.

As with all conferences, some of the speakers were better than others but it was a not-to-be-missed event.

Titled ‘To build a better tomorrow you need to act today’, we were given the information to do just that.

Around a third of the attendees were farmers, with the rest being a mixture of levy groups, local government and commercial entities. MPI were there in force. AgResearch attended, as did Lincoln and Massey universities.

It was an important conference.

Putting it in perspective, the country has spent the past 18 months devastated by covid-19. The world as we knew it has gone and changed forever.

Surprisingly, and despite covid-19, the NZ economy remains strong. Export revenue is expected to hit $49.1 billion by June 2022, with it increasing still further to $53.1b by June 2025.

That is a massive achievement and has happened for one reason – and that is the strength of our agricultural exports. Without them the economy and the country would be dog tucker.

The bottom line is that the primary sector is all we’ve got. The problem is that a lot of our officials, politicians and the media haven’t a clue.

For example, the Ministry for the Environment (MfE) is always willing to cast their pearls to the provincial swine that didn’t have a profile at the conference. If they were indeed there, they didn’t contribute.

Likewise with the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE).

Farmers Weekly were there in force but I was unaware of any other media, which was scandalous in my view. If a farmer has a machinery breakdown and an unintentional effluent discharge the media are there in droves, but for a constructive conference on our future as a country, they’re not interested. The so-called conservation groups were also conspicuous by their absence.

That was a travesty and shows in my opinion the inbred arrogance of much of the Wellington bureaucracy.

Returning to the conference we heard about low-carbon farming, the future workforce of the agricultural sector and the work of Māori Incorporations. There was climate change, He Waka Eke Noa and freshwater quality issues.

Forestry, the future of dairy, animal welfare and the future of new crops were also discussed.

As I’ve said, it was a highly informative discussion.

One of the highlights for me was a panel discussion on regenerative agriculture (RA) – as many of you know, I remain unconvinced.

John Roche is the chief scientist for MPI and, as well as being a highly reputable scientist who is fully aware of the issues facing the sector, his approach is, in a word, droll.

“Regenerative agriculture shouldn’t be a noun but a series of verbs” was his quote, which I fully supported.

Roche said “there is no actual definition of regenerative agriculture”.

I found that quote interesting as the RA companies I’ve researched all have different definitions of their practices and with that being the case, so should NZ.

Grass-fed would be a great start, followed by free beer on fine days.

Professor Nicola Shadbolt’s presentation on climate change was fascinating. She was on the Climate Change Commission and, by their reports, she served the primary sector well.

Her comment that “we’ll have to produce more food in the next 50 years than we have in the last 500” was sobering.

The awards dinner was a huge event and well worth attending. The food was local and delicious, with the chefs explaining what it was and where it came from. I had the high country lamb’s shoulder, which had been cooked for 24 hours, shredded and reconstituted. It was amazing.

The awards reflected our industry well.

In my opinion, no one has served the sector as has Malcolm Bailey, who received the supreme award.

Currently he serves as chair of the Red Meat Profit Partnership and the Dairy Companies Association. His recognition was well-deserved and long overdue.

The other awards recognised excellence in science and innovation and included sheep and beef, dairy, honey, horticulture and pork. 

So overall, it was a great event held over two memorable days in Christchurch.

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