KEY POINTS:
The scorched earth and hellish wildfire backdrop to London celebrity Heather Mills' billboard campaign was supposed to portray environmental Armageddon from the consumption of meat and milk.
The publicity stunt by the former wife of Beatle Sir Paul McCartney prompted an equally fiery outburst from Agriculture Minister Jim Anderton, who called her "deluded" and questioned her reliability and credibility.
Somewhere between these two reactions is an unmistakable message that consumers are increasingly concerned about the environmental footprint and ethics of food production.
Add to the Heather Mills stunt recent animal welfare campaigns by radical groups such as Peta and the billions of dollars being ploughed by British supermarkets into researching how to measure the greenhouse gas emissions of food production, and it is clear life is going getting more difficult for food exporters such as New Zealand.
Mr Anderton can rightly point out the hypocrisy of Heather Mills arriving at the evils of meat and dairy campaign launch in a "carbon-spilling" four-wheel drive car, but the fact remains that consumers, not politicians, are driving these campaigns.
Those at the forefront of our export industries say the pressure will only increase.
Once-foreign phrases such as carbon footprint, food miles and traceability are now a common language, albeit still an inexact science, as well as challenges for exporters.
Lincoln University academic Caroline Saunders warns that unless NZ embraces these new standards, exporters risk being shut out of affluent paying markets.
She believes New Zealand has three years to act before exporters start losing market advantage to countries that are addressing these new standards such as South America, Australia and China.
"We should embrace them. It means we can get much higher premiums for our products. We have no choice."
Kiwifruit exporter Zespri has Globalgap accreditation, standards required of suppliers to a grouping of European supermarkets, which earned returns twice that of other markets.
New Zealand has traded on its perception and reputation for being clean and green, but that will not last as markets start paying closer scrutiny and require evidence to back up claims.
British supermarkets and scientists are spending billions of dollars trying to determine how to measure carbon footprints, science New Zealand is also involved with to ensure we are not disadvantaged.
But questions remain about international standards and benchmarking of a product's carbon footprint and where the measurement started and stopped.
Did it include the growing of trees for fence posts, the material used in the construction of fencing wire or the transport of products to the farm?
Then there is the vexed issue of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from livestock, the subject of decades of research but with little tangible reward so far.
While research shows NZ primary exports came out on top of British food in the food miles debate, there are other ominous signs on the horizon.
AgResearch scientist Stewart Ledgard has found that only 2 to 3 per cent of a dairy product's New Zealand carbon footprint occurred during transport, but 80 to 85 per cent was generated on the farm.
The reality is that consumers will be looking at New Zealand products and expect tangible evidence that its carbon footprint is being reduced.
To help exporters to meet these demands, Dr Saunders said, the Government needed to help with setting up assurance and monitoring systems and any financial rewards from markets needed to go to producers. Producers also had to show that once emissions were measured, steps were being taken to reduce them.
CHANGING TIMES
Jargon facing primary exporters
* Market assurance schemes: European retailers have formed the Globalgap organisation and suppliers have to meet standards such as traceability, soil management, fertiliser use, labour and wildlife, in order to have access.
* Food miles: The distance food travels from grower or manufacturer to consumer. Greenhouse gas emissions associated with that travel have led some critics to argue for barriers to food trade and/or for consumers to buy locally grown products.
* Carbon footprint: A work in progress, but British supermarkets are investing vast sums of money to calculate the amount of carbon used to produce food items. This rating will be displayed to consumers.
* Traceability: Supermarkets require processors to be able to trace the origins of products back to the supplier.
- Otago Daily Times
