Corney, Carter deserve medals for perseverance

08-02-2010 | Alan Emerson

Well, we finally have a National Animal Identification and Traceability (NAIT) system and what a circus it has been.

NAIT Governance Group chairman and previous Feds meat and fibre chair Ian Corney didn't start off with a lot of hair but must have considerably less now. He deserves a medal for his patience and focus navigating the system through.

So too does the Minister of Agriculture David Carter who was prepared to make the hard decision. His comment "NAIT is about future proofing New Zealand agriculture" is one I fully support.

No one can accuse the minister of a lack of consultation. Everyone who wanted to have their say did. In addition the governance group has representatives from all the main farmer organisations along with the expertise of the Food Safety Authority and MAF. Their decisions and recommendations were rational and reasoned.

Further, the government is going to fund both the capital cost and the majority of the development funding. That's got to be good. The cost of NAIT when it is up and running will be an extra $2 to $3 an animal, which, while an unwelcome additional cost, isn't great.

On the other side of the ledger Carter points out that according to Treasury, NAIT will generate around $38 million worth of benefits a year. In addition it will reduce the impact of a foot and mouth outbreak by four to 10%. That is huge.

The whole debate has been an indictment on the rural sector with petty farmer politics transcending good common sense.

It is important to remember that the initiative was originally started out of Federated Farmers in the late nineties with then chief executive Tony St Clair along with Chris Lester, the meat and wool chair of the time. They saw the need for a traceability system and wanted to start the ball rolling. Heavens knows what happened at Feds HQ between then and now.

My position is that we must have animal traceability, I'm pleased we are going to get it and I'm happy sheep are on the radar as well.

Following, as many farmers do, the international agriculture news media, traceability is a given. Virtually all of our trading partners have compulsory traceability with the exception of the United States where it is currently voluntary. Even countries like Brazil have it for their export produce.

In Australia, our major competitor in many markets, the introduction of animal identification was farmer-led. The Australians boast their traceability system in the international market place. They claim that their success in the top-end Asian market is due to traceability. They are moving into traceability with sheep, which is now compulsory for sheep going to the EU. That will, inevitably, give them an advantage over us in that market.

Big users like McDonald's are demanding traceability, while traceability also shows ownership, an important factor with livestock theft.

So my feeling is well done to all those who rolled their sleeves up and have the system ready to roll and a plague on the opposition.

For the life of me I can't see how Feds' approach and position can have any benefit to their farmer members.

Soon after the minister's announcement Feds issued a strident media release under the heading "NAIT - asset or liability?" They then went on to say how they didn't endorse the final business case or its presentation to Cabinet. Fortunately in my opinion Cabinet did and good common sense prevailed.

There was an unbelievable heading that "biosecurity claims (of NAIT) are an illusion" and "no market is demanding NAIT". Tell that to McDonalds.

There's also obviously an IT expert among Feds' brains trust because their statement goes on to say that NAIT will be one of the "most complex databases ever constructed in NZ" and amazingly in my submission, "unless managed especially well, our fear is for an agricultural equivalent to the 1999 INCIS debacle". That is sophistry. Whether it is intended to create mischief or alarm I don't know but it is certainly not in the interests of farmer members.

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