Thank you Andrew Luddington for a wonderful and positive piece on what could be the future of farming in New Zealand. How refreshing to read some home truths about the consequences of NZ farming’s resistance to change. What an antidote to the endless moaning from the Feds, Groundswell and too many of my old farming mates – and don’t get me into the battle over the right to own the biggest ute you can find!
Luddington talks about rules and regs and change. Twenty years ago another Labour government was arguing with farmers about its determination to move on the Kyoto Protocol. As is sadly still the case, too many farmers saw the protocol’s implementation as an attack on their industry and way of life. A Labour minister commented at the time that “farmers should fear climate change, not Kyoto”.
Over the past 18 months we – I am talking about farmers, NZ and the world – have experienced an unprecedented array of freakish weather events. This situation has been predicted and here it is. The bad news is that climate change, long seen to be a linear process, is shifting to exponential as change ramps up the speed of change and its consequences. It will only get worse and faster.
The future of much more than farming is at stake here. We are talking about the future of humanity and planet Earth.
Luddington’s piece has jolted me into wondering if the Farmers Weekly could run a regular column from someone positively engaged in thinking and acting for the future of farming. Perhaps there might be several who could alternate. Certainly I have read contributions whose authors would fill the bill. Necessary prerequisite, simple – putting the future ahead of the past.
Geoff Prickett
Waikanae
More: You can read Luddington’s article here.
