We are skeptical and proud of it. Most other industry organisations are playing the politically correct game saying climate change is a global issue requiring global responses and other similar weasel words. Federated Farmers states on their website that:

 

"Despite the stumbling blocks, emissions trading still represents a potentially less restrictive approach than regulatory controls and certainly a more flexible approach than other price-based measures". 

 

Thats what you get when you employ young Wellington policy analysts straight from University that have never worn gumboots. With industry support like this we may as well all join Greenpeace!

 

 

The facts are there is a lot of nonsense talked about in the climate change debate. Not so much that we have added to atmospheric carbon because there is little doubt that globally we have. The science debate over the impact of human or anthropological emissions is far from settled. However, the real concerns are about the global political response that has been less than objective and prone to being biased towards national interests and New Zealand thinking about being a global leader in climate change policies is just plain scary! Check out the video on this page.

 

New Zealand’s agriculture is our major export earner. However, while New Zealand farmers are faced with buying carbon credits because our ruminants belch methane into the atmosphere, US farmers are selling carbon credits because their grasslands sequester carbon into the soil. Furthermore, apparently Australian farmers are also able to count their pastures as carbon sinks. (All based on New Zealand farming practice of feeding pasture in small controlled paddocks!)

 

Instead of being apologetic, our exporters could supply UK supermarkets with pastoral scenes captioned “Food from the world’s greenest greenhouse sinks!” We could also remind our tourists, viewing our green and verdant land, that these may be the most effective greenhouse sinks in the world. This may sound silly but there is sound science to back the argument and the Select Committee reviewing the Emissions Trading Scheme requested more information on this very fact. We assisted in its provision.

This is a major issue facing New Zealand and New Zealand farmers. It is important we fully understand the issues and the current state of the science. And we should not be apologetic about what we do. We cannot do this subject justice on a single policy page so the debate will be aired in our climate change soap box. Please take the time to view it and contribute.

 

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