Federated Farmers: Time to celebrate New Zealand

The World Farmers Organisation delegates, who recently visited New Zealand, learn how farmers here mitigate environmental impact.

It's a wonderful thing perspective. Something that requires an outside look in and a bit of a luxury when you're in the thick of it. Fortunately, I had the privilege of getting some the other week when I hosted the Global Research Alliance (GRA) World Farmers Organisation (WFO) study tour through New Zealand.

This tour was about globally connecting and engaging farmers to learn from each other on greenhouse gas (GHG) research and environmental management practices. The perspective I gained from hosting the three influential farming delegates from Poland, Canada and Argentina was just how well we are doing, as a nation, on the environmental stage.

In fact, we are punching well above our weight. New Zealand is a small player in the global emissions game, with only 0.16 per cent of world total gas emissions, yet we already have the commitment to mitigate them through our contribution to the GRA on agricultural greenhouse gases. The GRA's recent partnership with the WFO is a further commitment by New Zealand's farmers to play their part, through research on farm.

On tour we stopped at the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre, in Palmerston North, where we learnt our emissions per unit of product had dropped 20 per cent since 1990. This comes as we have increased production, showing how farming has adapted and become more efficient. It also shows how dedicated the primary industries are to mitigate their impact on the environment. As Santiago, our Argentinian delegate said, "When we talk about global emissions, nobody is staring at New Zealand but, proactively, your country has taken the lead which is really inspiring!"

It wasn't just inspiring for our international delegates, but for me personally. I spend a significant amount of time defending farmers and explaining to the general public and media that the general farming population does care for the environment.

It was a breath of fresh air to be celebrating farmers and the good work they do without the 'keyboard bullies' coming in with an ill-advised, nasty or irrational snipe. Seeing what New Zealand is doing in the environmental space from an international perspective was heartening and reinforced my view that we are doing great things, and can do without the self-flagellation.

We are quick to criticise people for not living up to our standards, but when they surpass them, like the Lake Taupo community has, we struggle to swallow our scepticism and say congratulations.

After a good dose of perspective, I would like to say congratulations New Zealand. We are navigating our way through some pretty complex and tough environmental reform. While it doesn't please everyone, and some regions are adapting better than others, we are being admired from the world stage for getting ahead of the problems.