Horticulture New Zealand is seeking government assurance that any changes to the Resource Management Act will not put vital domestic fruit and vegetable production at risk.
The organisation is seeking a range of amendments to proposed reforms, including recognition of the national importance of protecting highly productive land for primary production.
HortNZ has also written to ministers highlighting the need for changes including permitted activity for discharges from commercial vegetable production, managed with a certified Freshwater Farm Plan (FWFP).
HortNZ chief executive Nadine Tunley said National promised to make fruit and vegetables a permitted activity in 2024.
“We urgently need them to deliver on that promise, through these RMA amendments.”
Tunley said RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has said the government will change the Act to make it easier to build houses and renewable energy infrastructure.
“We accept that people need houses, but they also need to eat fresh fruit and vegetables. If the government makes building houses easier, then it also needs to make changes to the RMA to enable the supply of fresh fruit and vegetables,” Tunley said.
“If the amendments do not recognise the importance of that, it will increase the risks to New Zealand’s food supply and exacerbate the cost of living crisis.”
The NZ population grew by 138,000 last year, but council rules are currently preventing vegetable growers from growing more produce, Tunley said.
“While housing has gobbled up highly productive land over the past 10 years, the area for growing vegetables has not expanded at all. This is because the “RMA is preventing vegetable growers from expanding in many regions.
The localised effects of [commerical vegetable production] can be managed with a FWFP, without causing significant adverse environmental effects, and the National Policy Statement for Freshwater supports the management of cumulative effects though freshwater limits.”
HortNZ is also calling for the amendments to the RMA to include:
• Making protection of highly productive land a matter of national importance and amending the National Policy Statement on Highly Productive Land to refer to “primary production” rather than “land based primary production”, to allow for greenhouses and ancillary activities, and refining the definition of highly productive land to reflect product capacity of the land.
• The supply of fresh fruit and vegetables to be made a matter that all RMA practitioners have particular regard to.
• Crop survival water – the amount of water necessary to prevent the loss of horticultural crops for human consumption – to be afforded the same protections as stock drinking water.
• The creation of a national body under the Ministry for the Environment to approve industry assurance programmes, rather than requiring each regional council to approve the same programmes.
• Changing the definition of Te Mana o te Wai and “human health” to support decision making that recognises the fundamental trade-offs necessary to achieve environmental improvements while keeping the people and the economy healthy.
• Improving the definitions of “auditor” and “certifier” for FWFPs, to align with international standards.
• Providing regional councils with the option to approve a FWFP standard equivalent to national requirements.
• Prioritising resilient regional infrastructure, enabling the production and transportation of fresh fruits and vegetables and making provision of freshwater harvesting and storage relevant factors when deciding if a matter is a proposal of national significance.
