I don’t ever bother watching Sunday on TVNZ, it just has never interested me as a genuine source of current affairs, but I must admit to having my interest grabbed by their one hour special on Sunday which looked at the true cost of Dairy farming in NZ.
The affable and astute Cameron Bennett, who I’ve always had a soft spot for, was the urban Aucklander out on two dairy farms, one an intensively farmed farm and the other a much less intensive farmed one.
I grew up on a farm, and we had a killing shed across from our house, so the death of animals and their butchering doesn’t phase me but I could almost hear the recoil of urban viewers shocked at the realities of the milk, cheese, prepackaged meat and leather goods they use. This disconnect between our urban illusions and the actual truth of killing is something Sunday managed to bridge in a very responsible and truthful way and was a really positive strength of the show.
Bennett asked hard questions about the impacts of intensive farming and really challenged the notions of never ending intensification and the solutions presented by the far less intensive example were immediate and obvious.
With a far lower intensive farming model that looks after the soil and the environment we manage to demand a higher price for our product in overseas markets. It allows us to move from just selling milk powder to China for lower and lower prices to charging a premium price for a premium product.
The knock on may be higher prices for us at the supermarket, but a NZ that ate less dairy and meat would be a positive to the country’s health as a whole.
So I congratulate TVNZ for having the courage to do the show. What’s been most interesting to me however has been the backlash amongst Farmers.
If you go to the dairy farmer Facebook page…
…they are incandescent with rage at the way their industry was profiled.
Look at this demand to boycott Sunday’s main sponsor…
…the outrage by some within Dairy Farming at a very honest appraisal of their industry by TVNZ suggests an angry electorate who instead of being open to criticism and prepared to adapt to the environmental realities in front of us as a planet and as a country, are prepared to lash out at anyone they see as threatening their identity and way of life.
Such ignorance and fury suggests to me that the only way we can get Dairy Farmers on board for a low density farming future is tax credits to under produce. If Dairy Farmers of NZ can watch something as fair and balanced as Sunday and scream for advertiser boycotts, then we are dealing with an insular group who are fanatical in their own belief system and the only way you are going to coax them out is to financially reward them for doing the right thing.
I hope that such attempts to attack Sunday doesn’t spook TVNZ form making these kind of well researched and serious programmes in the future.
Well, maybe it is time to boycott the sale of inorganic dairy products, of beef and even baby formula, and prefer the more natural way of food production and baby nutrition?
How will the farming lobby feel about that then?
no need for tax-credits – the rise/arrival of plant-based milk/meat will flush them/their sadism/cruelties down the toilet – the economic rationales for their existance will disappear..
before too long there is going to be a hell of a lot of cheap dairy farms on the market…
..and the whole animal-flesh/bye-products industries will go the way of the stable-owners/bridle-makers after the arrival of the motor-car..
..that is inevitable..
Also we have to factor into the cost of dairying our “subsidies we as taxpayers give the dairy farmers through government “relief packages” as hand-outs during floods and natural weather bombs” as what happened yesterday in the Bay of Plenty, as government offered them “financial hand-outs” again to re-stock/re-plant grass ect’.
We need to revisit the cost of the real “pint of milk”
Pretty sure you have no clue what you are on about, I bet you yourself have never been or worked on a farm. You’re talking out your ass like every other jafa commenting on here.
Agree wholeheartedly Nicholas. Yellow is the new Green.
The greedy corporate farmer again. Make money but don’t give a stuff about the land… they won’t care until they sell the heard, sell the land and head to some tropical tax haven.
I fail to see the logic in giving subsidies to such an insular, obnoxious group. There are other ways a government can impose its will. If National wont, we need a different government.
Incidentally, Martyn, I am pleased that the realities of farming dont faze you out; I really dont want you to be phased out.
If they had to pay $100 every time they turned on their irrigation plant they would eventually find that less intensive farming much more rewarding. Farmers should always work with Mother Nature rather than against her.
Affable and astute? I remember bennett as a Right Wing apologist and hum voiced dribbler similar to john campbell as they both learned to lean into the tear streaked faces of the unfortunate for the ratings misery and dripping blood can afford.
I must have been mistaken?
If dairy exports are cut by 30% NZ would lose 6 billion dollars.
If we charge 10c per litre for exported drinking water NZ would earn 6 billion dollars.
There are options.
Agree Peter. Let the market fix the problem. It has worked for New Zealand since 1984 and will continue to work for kiwis after September 23rd 2017.
It is fair that farmers, as consumers and taxpayers, have the right to boycott who they do not like. It’s free speech and NZ is a democratic country. September 23rd will affirm this to all New Zealanders and return the National Party and its coalition for a 4th term. Swimmable rivers will be a game-changer for National and the coalition. Yellow will be the new Green in NZ.
Most farmers I know did not like Campbell Live either. Most cheered when Campbell’s leftie/greenie/communist/anti-dairy views (sponsored again by Mazda) were removed from the screens and replaced with the highly rated The Project.
Most farmers choose Toyotas and Fords ahead of Mazda anyway, so no great loss to NZ’s economy with a Mazda boycott.
Nothing to see here, move along!
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