Pending Beef + Lamb NZ director elections are being viewed by some as a referendum on the board’s handling of the He Waka Eke Noa agreement to price agricultural greenhouse gases.
This is especially true in the election for the Southern South Island election, which is a two-horse race between current BLNZ chair Andrew Morrison and challenger Geoffrey Young.
Morrison acknowledges the board’s advocacy will be an issue, but defends its performance, saying He Waka Eke Noa (HWEN) was in response to government intentions to price agricultural emissions.
Young argues, however, that HWEN shows sector leaders rolled over too easily for the government, and the agreement needs to be renegotiated.
Southern farmers, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there are widespread concerns about BLNZ’s advocacy performance. They view HWEN as a policy that was sold to farmers rather than the outcome of consultation and representation.
They also said that only good can come from having former Federated Farmers leaders on two producer boards: the Feds’ Southland Provincial president Young on BLNZ, should he be elected, and Feds board member Chris Lewis on Dairy NZ (DNZ).
Morrison said the government is pursuing a climate change agenda and with both main political parties committed to pricing agricultural emissions, doing nothing or refusing to engage would have seen the sector included in the far more onerous Emissions Trading Scheme.
“Andrew Morrison didn’t come up with the proposal that we want to voluntarily price emissions. It was clearly told to us that this is what is going to happen,” Morrison said.
Creating a united grouping of 11 sector bodies to address the challenge was a first and reflected the reality that the issue was bigger than any one group could deal with, he said.
He said targets are not yet finalised, with lobbying underway for pricing and measuring methane and recognising vegetation for sequestration.
Morrison said advocacy is one part of the organisation’s role and he is proud of what has been achieved with trade access, market development, research and development, extension and the contribution from the Economic Service.
Young said he reflects farmer frustration with the board’s advocacy role, especially with HWEN.
He is standing as an independent but said senior members of the federation and the lobby group Groundswell had asked him to put his name forward.
Young said the view among many farmers is that BLNZ and DairyNZ rolled over too easily when negotiating with the government on issues such as HWEN.
He said he was told that the grouping that negotiated HWEN were split in their support for the final document, evidence they had agreed too soon.
He said until 20 years ago Federated Farmers was the primary advocate for the primary sector, but now BLNZ and DNZ have adopted those roles and he wants an independent review to ensure there is a strong united voice.
“I’m not saying BLNZ and DNZ should not do some advocacy, but we do need a review to understand that we need a united voice when dealing with the government,” Young said.
He rejected any notion that his hard-nosed approach could be disruptive to the BLNZ board, saying that, more importantly, if he unseats the incumbent chair it will send a message that grassroot farmers are unhappy.
“I believe I can work with other board members but certainly modify their stance and direction.”
BLNZ chief operating officer Cros Spooner said to be eligible to vote in director elections, resolutions and remits, a livestock farmer must, on June 30 2022, have owned at least 250 sheep, 50 beef cattle or 100 dairy cattle.
Voting is based on weighted livestock numbers for each farm, rather than one farm one vote.
Spooner said this means no single farming entity holds a large enough proportion of stock numbers to influence decision-making.
He said livestock numbers declared by the 10 largest farming businesses on the BLNZ database equate to between 3% and 4% of total sheep, beef and dairy cow numbers.
