We always hear people talking about adding value to our exports, in which I include tourism.
I believe the easiest value for us as a country to add and capitalise on is to enhance our clean, green image.
Don’t get me wrong, we have to be always looking at adding value all ways but this is something that can be done for all our food products and tourism quickly and is already recognised in some parts of the world.
It is extremely important that to maintain our standard of living we need to add more value to our exports.
So what does the clean, green image really mean?
Talking with tourists it is very interesting.
Yes, they talk about great landscapes, rivers, lakes, wide open spaces but also about all our urban areas also being environmentally friendly with recycling and modern, environmentally friendly waste disposal.
Well, I was all ears when I was told they had read about the dumping of sewage in Lake Wakatipu. They told me that was what they expected in countries less developed than NZ.
So, that made me do a bit of research on NZ urban waste disposal systems.
I am now convinced that as a nation we have a huge task ahead of us to retain our clean, green image.
While 25 years ago dairy farmers were unaware of the environmental issues they were adding to, they have now invested huge amounts to correct that but I believe our urban centres are at the same place as farmers were 25 years ago.
Auckland storm-water drains have raw sewage overflow into them in heavy rain, which then runs to waterways and the harbours.
Do you realise at 10 Auckland beaches swimming is banned because of sewage pollution?
Others are being monitored and could be closed for swimming.
Manukau Harbour now has sewage dumped into it on average 20 times a year because Auckland does not having the capacity to treat it.
In two days last year the volume of 124 Olympic swimming pools of partially treated sewage was dumped into Manukau Harbour.
Imagine if industry and dairy farmers used heavy rain as an excuse to dump effluent into water ways.
The Super City decided the former Auckland City Council's plan would cause "massive disruption" and that it will be cheaper to install new interceptors for the overflow from the combined drains.
Somehow, this will take longer than laying a new network of pipes, which was to be done by 2021. Now it will be 2035 before the remedial work is completed and then it will not be a complete solution.
The Auckland council's "healthy waters" manager, Craig Milroy, said, "Overflows can be reduced to the extent they compromise public safety or the ecological health of our waterways.”
What a cop-out – 18 years to correct the problem. Are they really serious? Its time people told councils this behaviour is not acceptable.
Wellington City sewage dumped 56,053 cubic metres of partially treated sewage into the sea in 2016.
Other cities dump treated sewage directly into the sea. I wonder how many are dumping partially treated waste into the sea and not being monitored.
It’s time all our communities took these issues seriously.
Huge capital expenditure needs to happen to sewage and storm water systems to bring them bring them up to speed.
As a nation it is time all these issues were taken seriously and we all work together to create the cleanest, greenest nation in the world recognised as the producer of great food produced in a sustainable way that people are prepared to pay a premium for.
And one where tourists want to come to experience our great environment.
We need to concentrate on quality rather than quantity.
NZ cannot feed the world but we can produce high-value food for those who are prepared to pay a premium for it.
We do not need excessive numbers of tourists. That just causes its own infrastructure problems. We need tourists prepared to pay a premium for what we have to offer.
We need to value our environment and what we do to it needs to be part of our culture.
That means every citizen is proud of our environment and what we do with it.
As farmers, we have led the way in correcting our environmental issues but sadly the rest of our nation has not joined us in doing the same.
It is time that we in the rural communities were proud of the big investments we have made and be more outspoken about what we have done and get all NZ on board to correct other areas that still need addressing.
The whole nation needs to be on the same page.
Be proud to be a farmer and encourage others that NZ can lead the world if we all get on board.
