A Fishy Post from the Imperator: Farms as Dumping Grounds – Don’t Think So.

Or, sub-title: How do you turn the remainder of the South Island into a dairy farm? Answer: Vote in a Greens/Labour coalition.

Scott Yorke has had a dig at the rural community, calling New Zealand farms a 'dumping ground'.  I've grown tired of this emoting nonsense that otherwise sensible men, such as Yorke, seem to have swallowed from New Zealand’s Green theocracy, which, like Leftist state crony capitalism, doesn't stand up to the facts.

Think about this.

I see all my farming clients on their farms at least once a year: I've not seen one dumping ground. The opposite. Just this Sunday my wife and I had lunch at a friend's dairy farm under the shadow of Mt Hutt, a one hour drive through pristine countryside, and flowing rivers. After the cheesecake, and the walk to the end of the farm and back, in which not one bit of litter was visible, nor one shred of silage wrap, Farmer Friend spent the afternoon teaching me his favourite pastime; fly casting (on the lawn, note, the season doesn’t start to October). Now does anyone think he will be careless with the river ways? Why would he destroy one of the activities that gives him such joy in life? More, the majority of dairy owners, and every farm manager, live on their farms; why would they turn their homes into dumping grounds? Perhaps Scott is imputing city values onto the country? No doubt Queen Street after a Friday or Saturday night is quite the ‘dumping ground’. Finally, I'd wager there's more pressure exerted in the pub on those few farmers who fall short, than in the Environment Court.


And though Scott's post didn't mention the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), when I commented to his thread, that scheme was soon brought up, with the point made by the respondent that I must be a climate denier. Um, have I written ... Oh, yes; sick of emoting, politico-theocratic nonsense'.
 

Though for the sake of argument, despite the science on climate change being nowhere close to resolved, one way or the other, let me, regardless, hand the Greens the argument; for a moment I'll give them man-made climate change. Because they believe - as in faith, rather than facts - in man-made climate change, they want carbon trading and all livestock forced into an ETS. Okay, now I’ve given the Green camp that, explain to me, any of you, with facts and figures, how putting New Zealand’s livestock into an ETS will change the supposed global climate equation, for the ‘better’ - whatever that means - in anything other than symbolic terms?
 

 And then stand that against what can be proven. Due to over-regulation and a viciously enforced taxation in every aspect of our lives, from the RMA ramped price of land our homes sit on, many families in New Zealand are already having trouble making ends meet. The state has destroyed, utterly, free markets, and, quite apart from the philosophical issues - read my blog byline - our standard of living is being decimated. Well put livestock into an ETS and the price of protein will be finally beyond the reach of many more Kiwi families completely: if you think dairy products and meat are expensive now, wait until a callous government actually does that. Then add on top the passed on cost of a carbon tax on energy. Ironically, the families that will bear the brunt of the hardship both will cause are the Greens/Labour constituency. Though no doubt they’ll blame it on a capitalism that doesn’t exist anymore, like they always do, and the soft minds, incapable of critical thought, churned out by the state school system will swallow that, hook line and sinker, Mr Imperator Fish, instead of being able to eat the fat of the land.

Worse, when labour first published the figures that were to be imposed on livestock via the ETS, I put them into a spread sheet and ran some rough figures. Note, I no longer have that spread sheet, it was three or four computers ago, and I can no longer remember the sums, but what I can remember, clearly, was the knowledge that even a family sheep, beef or deer farm with no debt would have trouble meeting the added cost, and still provide a living, indeed, the only livestock farm activity that possibly had enough cash falling out from the bottom line was dairy. So if you want to ensure that the remaining marginal dairy land in the South Island, including, ultimately, the McKenzie Country, is converted into dairying – and I don’t want to see it either, because for economic strength we need diversity – then the best bet for this to happen will be to vote in a Greens/Labour coalition in 2014.


Before it’s too late I would ask Scott, Greens and Labour voters, and National who are still threatening the viability of farming in 2015, to look up: ‘unintended consequences’, and ‘own goal’. And perhaps get yourselves down to a farm: I've got this suspicion not many of you have been to many.

Postscript: I see Homepaddock has just put up an article on how an ETS will increase the cost of food also.

UPDATE:

Note I'm aware in the above that farmers' are price takers, however, it is inevitable that the increased cost of protein production will end up with the consumer: for example, less sheep farms will mean less supply of sheep meat which will mean increased price, etc.