It’s not a food tax – Groundswell Farmer’s don’t want to pay for their pollution!
Groundswell NZ presents its food tax petition at Parliament
More than 100,000 people have signed a Groundswell NZ petition calling on the Government to stop its emissions tax on agriculture.
The group’s co-founders, Laurie Paterson and Bryce McKenzie delivered the petition by tractor to Parliament on Thursday morning, where it was received by Associate Minister of Agriculture Meka Whaitiri and Deputy Leader of the House Kieran McAnulty.
A total of 102,724 signatures were collected by the group after the Government released its draft agricultural emissions pricing proposal, He Waka Eke Noa, which would tax farmers for the emissions created on their farms.
As the climate meltdown continues around us, and as we pay $20million to start compensating for the destruction the climate crisis is doing to the poorest, I thought about National’s original ‘Groundswell’ movement and their response to emissions targets 19 years ago by driving a tractor up the steps of Parliament…
Nineteen years after the ‘fart tax’, New Zealand’s farmers are fighting emissions
Almost 20 years ago, hundreds of furious New Zealand farmers jumped into their tractors, farm bikes and trucks and ploughed up Wellington’s main street towards parliament to kick up a stink against the so-called “fart tax” – a levy on livestock methane gases, proposed by the then-Labour government to reduce emissions.
A cow named Energy was led up the building’s granite steps and left an unwelcome mess in her wake. In doing so, she provided the opposition movement with a powerful, if indelicate, visual metaphor: rural New Zealand was ready for a mudslinging match with the capital. Just months later, the government abandoned the tax.
…despite all the evidence proving global warming is here and impacting us, how much has changed since this madness 19 years ago?
Look how in NZ the Corporate Quisling Farmers run NZ politics so much so that the merest hint of them being forced to pay for their own pollution is met with howls of persecution!
Farmers are 1.16% of the population, represent 5.5% of GDP, make 48% of greenhouse gas emissions and create 70% of NZ’s contribution to global warming yet they are able to run roughshod over any legislative reigning in because the have such enormous political and economic power!
They have structured the entire industry for their benefit in the form of a Monopoly and National sold 49% of our Hydro Assets to set up a $400million irrigation slush fund for dairy intensification!
They could still drive a tractor up the steps of Parliament and get away with it because they still hold enormous sway over the political and economic infrastructure.
This isn’t a ‘food tax’ it is making NZ Farmers finally pay for their climate crisis inducing pollution!
We all love Farmers because they produce food to feed us, what we don’t love is them feeding 40million others and placing enormous strain on our environment to ensure their corporate wealth and powerful influence over NZ politics continues!
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The cost of our food in Aotearoa is largely based on the price we get for selling overseas. Thats why cheese, butter, meat, fruit, honey and seafood, etc are so expensive because everyone wants our produce. So no one is to blame here. Costs to producers are trivial.
As long as the farmers are raking it in, who cares about what happens to the environment?
In Somalia, environmental laws are non-existent, hence why that country is a shithole.
Yes millsy we all know the story of the famous Somali dairy boom, the over intensification of cows per hectare of sand, the over use of utes and how all the nitrates evaporated the water and triggered years of conflict as the wealthy dairy farmers all converted to a militant form of Islam.
If only they had decent environmental laws they would be the Switzerland of Africa.
It’s a cautionary tale of utter bullshit.
Can you actually say that the sector’s omissions of 48% are being generated evenly across all the producers of that 5.5% contribution to GDP? That 5.5% is agriculture, forestry, and fisheries is it not? It’s not just cows and sheep. Some more granular data on contribution to GDP versus omissions would be interesting. I think farmer is quite a general term.
Growing up in the 70s and 80s I could swim in any river in my region safely, and I understand that was the case around the motu. It is not the case now and intensive cattle farming is largely the reason. We need to rescue our waterways, our lands life blood. Groundswell farmers need to change their attitudes and farming practices. Get with the times or farm other stock. Beef is not an essential protein, neither is cows milk/powder, it’s just a lucrative one. I love a fat eye fillet, but not at the expense of our waterways (and not at export prices). I’m happy to eat other proteins instead, and there are a lot of options.
You live in a city at the expense of the environment- city waterways are the most polluted in the country.
It does allow you to live a completely unnatural life in a concrete and steel jungle next to fellow out of touch wankers though.
So you can all point the finger at those awful backwards farmers, whose produce has to transported to your supermarkets so you can eat at your convenience.
And your rich spoiled brat progeny can continue flying to Fiji for holidays while also joining in the finger pointing.
“How dare you”. Lol.
Never mind most sheep and beef properties have considerable bush cover – we won’t count that unless it’s part of an ETS. We will ignore the study showing greater than 90 percent of them are carbon neutral, it doesn’t suit the PMC narrative.
City good, country bad – here’s your EV subsidy let’s not think about the record amounts of dirty imported extra coal to charge it or the huge environmental footprint to mine battery components.
Tax those dirty farmers and their utes eh.
How many city households or businesses are close to or carbon neutral? F&$k all?
Hypocrites.
It doesn’t pay for the woke moral priesthood to look too hard does it.
We should tax people for living in the city- your lack of trees per person is appalling. You should have to plant your front and back yard in pine trees or pay a penalty. Maybe ban apartments unless they are registered in an ETS.
Agreed. Farmers need to carry the stock numbers they can support on their own land. Own grass. Own hay and silage. Own supplementary fodder crops. The govt can help that by banning the import of that vile palm kernel shit.
Absolutely.
In the 70’s and 80’s the population of NZ was about half what it is now so it stands to reason that pollution from all sources would also double since demand for said sources has doubled. Ever think that maybe there aren’t too many cows but too many fucking people?
?
We have not develop Ed tech, gaming, horticulture and other industry enough to replace farming and tourism revenue. So we are stuck with them.
Only answer is for bureaucracy and industry to work together.
Exactly Marco. Not all this bullshit having a stomp and saying “I just won’t farm anymore”. Who said anything about stopping farming? It’s about changing how we do things. Also stop using the term “farming” to cover every primary industry. You can’t tell me aqua culture, horticulture, sheep etc are doing the same damage as dairy.
Yep good old Noo Zilinders are very good at shooting ourselves in the foot when it comes to our economy, Sure farming may contribute only 5% to GDP but protein production accounts for nearly 40% of overseas exports. I’ve always assumed that NZ/AO is a trading nation.
I guess we can always set up cake and handcrafts stalls at various locations around the globe and that will see us right for paying back our burgeoning national debt
Or we can wait until we’re right in the shit of our own making and take a page out of some of our pacific island neighbours book and let the Peoples Republic of China pay back our loans, all for a small favour of course, perhaps a 50 million cow dairy farm or 3 and other protein products. All to be shipped home along the great belt road to the homeland using the latest and greatest carbon technology
“ They have structured the entire industry for their benefit in the form of a Monopoly”
Lots of commentators make the mistake of only thinking of dairy when they write about primary production – surprised to see Martyn in that number though
If you are going to write seriously about this topic, you have to get a handle on the difference between the different farming sectors.