The anger was palpable and the discussion varied but there was unanimity among 100 farmers in Gore last week in their disdain for the government’s proposed agricultural greenhouse gas policies.
The reaction of farmers ranged from questioning the science behind the proposed taxing of methane and wanting farming leaders to walk away from the discussions, to rallying behind rural leaders.
Several felt primary sector partners had not fought the proposal to charge for emissions hard enough, but this prompted Southland farmer Bill McCall to call for unity.
“We don’t want to be fighting among ourselves, it sends the wrong message to the government,” he warned.
The 100 farmers were attending a meeting arranged by Beef + Lamb NZ (BLNZ) to discuss the government’s response to the He Waka Eke Noa (HWEN) document on pricing of agricultural greenhouse gases.
BLNZ chair Andrew Morrison warned on multiple occasions that pricing agricultural emissions was a government proposal and that ignoring the issue was not an option.
The government has a law sitting on its books that if the industry cannot find a solution, the sector will be put into the Emissions Trading Scheme, which would be more costly.
He said the sector is stronger when united and he vowed not sign a document that would damage any sector.
“We will negotiate right up to 11 hours and 59 minutes. No [HWEN] partners will sign up to a poor deal.”
Several farmers questioned the merits of being levied for methane when they have few options to reduce it.
Others felt it unfair they were being charged for their greenhouse gas emissions while the government proposal limits the class of vegetation recognised as sequestering.
Alliance Group livestock and shareholder services manager Danny Hailes said the meat co-operative opposes the government’s response, saying combined with afforestation, the resulting destocking has the potential to cause plant closures.
He was asked whether markets will pay premium prices for carbon-neutral meat, and said there are no signs of this yet. “I cannot point my finger at any particular premium for this. Down the track there could be, but at the moment it is not an issue.”
Morrison told the farmers that he has crunched the numbers to determine his emission numbers on his farm, and at 8c/kg of methane it is going to cost him $1.40/stock unit a year without allowance for sequestration.
Every cent per/kg less of methane tax would save him $1000.
Dave Harrison, BLNZ policy and advocacy manager, went through the details of the government’s response, highlighting seven significant differences between it and the HWEN proposal.
Those were the disproportionate impact on sheep and beef farmers, recognised sequestration vegetation, how the prices for methane and nitrous oxide will be set, governance of the system, use of tax revenue and the background threat of a processor levy or ETS.
Harrison said the partnership has little confidence in the modelling the government used in its response.
He said the government’s proposed 8c/kg tax is too high and will overshoot its 2030 methane reduction targets and raise more money than is needed.
The government has said money raised from greenhouse gas pricing will be invested back into research and development for the sector.
If the price is not lowered, government modelling shows it could acquire $150 million more than it intends to spend on agricultural greenhouse gas research and development.
Harrison said it appears the money could be diverted into other, general, greenhouse gas research.
