Mark Peart: Farmers and townies need to work together

Several weeks ago, I covered a public meeting in Dunedin organised by the Government walking access consultation panel.

The two-hour discussion was wide ranging. Two farmers in particular, one from the central South Island and the other from south Otago, spoke passionately and eloquently of their concern at the prospect of members of the public being given carte blanche to wander over private farmland unchecked.

They were voices of moderation in what has been an acrimonious and protracted debate. They didn't mind people walking on their land provided they had the common courtesy to ask first.

Both men had experienced people abusing that fundamental trust.

I was struck by how they resisted the temptation to take an extreme position on the walking-access issue, even though they might have had good reason to do so.

Conversely, I was disturbed to read a speech given by Dairy Farmers of New Zealand chairman Frank Brenmuhl at the annual conference in Wellington.

Brenmuhl said: "Poll-driven politics has allowed an increasing urban population to live in highly modified and changed environments while they ask rural people to keep the rural environment unmodified."

He said urban people were prepared to live "with a view of houses, the sound of traffic, and waterways buried underground in pipes and culverts for the benefit of employment and education.

"Yet they expect rural people to make a living without impacting on the environment.

"We have as an industry and as individuals made a substantial daily commitment to meeting the ever-present challenge to deliver sustainable farming practice. We have yet to see similar steps being taken by the larger community."

I found such divisive talk from a senior farming leader to be disturbing.

Society has enough problems in areas such as racial separatism without an even greater wedge being driven between the urban and rural sectors.

I'm a townie but I have dealt extensively with farmers in my professional capacity for 25 years. I like to think I have a balanced grasp of the issues confronting both sectors. In my experience, the urban and rural sectors have long had a good appreciation of how pivotal the existence of one is to the other.

Government ministers recently feted dairy farmers for making "significant progress" in implementing farm practices to improve water quality in freshwater rivers and streams.

A report outlining monitoring results from the second year of the Clean Streams Accord showed 72 per cent of dairy farms now exclude stock from their waterways - exceeding the 50 per cent target set for 2007. Some 93 per cent of farmers had also bridged or culverted waterway crossings regularly used by stock.

However, the April report noted that progress against the nutrient management target had been slower, with just 19 per cent of farmers having systems in place.

Fonterra technical services manager Shane Lodge has since said the report was behind the times and that about 35 per cent of suppliers now had plans in place. The company also recently completed 39 nutrient-management workshops for about 3000 suppliers nationwide.

There is no doubt that dairy farmers are making a major effort to improve farming practices and the effect they have on the environment. But, in many cases, such improvements were long overdue and were sparked more by a carrot-and-stick than environmental altruism.

The substantial investment farmers have made in cleaning up their act should be acknowledged.

Regional councils concede the Clean Streams Accord makes their regulatory job much easier.

Some councils say the accord has also encouraged farmers to prepare farm plans that look at sustainable management on their properties and that it is an element of wider initiatives by farmers to improve their environmental performance.

There is no doubt then that dairy farmer attitudes to environmental management and protection have certainly turned around. There is also no doubt there is scope for further improvement. There also seems to be improved potential for a collaborative urban-rural approach to environmental management and protection.

To my mind, though, Brenmuhl's contrary strategy of perpetuating a "them-and-us" atmosphere and shifting blame to his urban cousins is not only bad PR, it just doesn't make sense.

* Mark Peart is a Dunedin-based freelance writer.