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TO ALL FARMERS, FOR ALL FARMERS JULY 16, 2019: ISSUE 680
www.ruralnews.co.nz
$100m for what?
ALMOST THERE PETER BURKE
SUDESH KISSUN sudeshk@ruralnews.co.nz
FARMERS PAY nearly $100 million a year in levies to industry-good groups, says Federated Farmers Dairy chairman Chris Lewis. And for what value? he asks. Proposed levies for Mycoplasma bovis eradication and biosecurity, if adopted, would have farmers forking out even more money, he says. Speaking at the Federated Farmers annual meeting in Wellington this month, he questioned whether farmers are getting good value for their levies. “What monumental shift in agriculture or value has this [caused]? I’m a supporter of levy bodies, but that shouldn’t stop us questioning the value or direction of them. “Farmer’s money is limited and must be used wisely.” Lewis says farmers must ponder the future of some levy funded bodies. “How will they ensure that their extension activities reach all their levy payers? How will they manage overlap and conflicts with other levy bodies and Federated Farmers?” Lewis presented annual levy data showing DairyNZ raking in $66.2m, Beef + Lamb NZ $24.4m and the Foundation for Arable Research $4.25m. He said it may sometimes be inappropriate for a levy body to comment publicly, but it’s okay for Feds to. He queried how levy funded bodies should manage this. He asked how these groups should ensure an inclusive portion for all
farmers. “How do you come to a position that doesn’t pick winners at the expense of others in agriculture?” And he asked how they would ensure farmers see value in paying a compulsory levy. Lewis urged farmers to focus on “good news stories” and ignore attacks on farming by minorities.
“Many of our members are engaged in community catchment groups too, working with their communities to achieve great outcomes,” said Lewis. “The only ones missing from all this work and engagement are the antagonists who like giving us the verbal, but their words don’t match their work effort with a spade or hammer.
“Their political attacks on us are aimed at driving a wedge between farmers and their city friends. “We must remember this is a political attack by a minority. It’s not the community attacking us, as we all know there are many issues we all must take hold of.” • Beef bovis levy – p16
Town meets country Federated Farmers joined forces this year with a commercial conference organiser to stage the inaugural Primary Industries Conference at Te Papa Museum, Wellington, earlier this month. Pictured are Southland Feds meat & wool chair Bernadette Hunt and Southland president Geoffrey Young listening to a presentation at the two-day event. Feds national president Katie Milne says a key objective of the conference was to try to help the public and decisionmakers to better understand farming. They sought to do something different and bring primary industries into Wellington to give attendees closer connections and enable collaboration and connections between politicians, academics, officials and agribusiness people. • See comprehensive coverage of the conference content in this issue of Rural News.
peterb@ruralnews.co.nz
IF BRITAIN crashes out of the EU at the end of October it will be unlikely to seriously affect the New Zealand meat industry. That’s the view of the NZ meat industry’s special envoy on Brexit, Jeff Grant. He told Rural News that October/ November is not a critical time of the year for our meat industry. But he concedes it may cause some difficulty with chilled and early spring lamb. Grant says a greater risk existed earlier this year when the leave date was March 31. This would have affected Easter lamb sales, he says. “October 31 doesn’t create so much difficulty,” Grant says. “But it is continually delaying the possibility of a NZ free trade agreement (FTA) with the UK, and that is the big frustration.” Grant says it is now almost impossible to predict what might happen with Brexit. He believes much of Boris Johnson’s talk is just electioneering. He questions whether Johnson can get the numbers in the British Parliament, or has time before the summer break, to endorse his threat to leave the EU without a deal. Grant says the problem has to be solved solely by the EU and the UK and the EU has said it will act in Ireland’s best interest. He says another extension to Britain’s leave date is possible.
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