Don't fight, Anderton tells green groups, farmers

Jim Anderton

Green groups and farmers have to drop any them-and-us mentality and co-operate more over environmental issues, Agriculture Minister Jim Anderton told a forum in Napier yesterday.

The forum was organised by the New Zealand Institute of Agricultural and Horticultural Science after the broadside against environmentalists by Federated Farmers president Charlie Pedersen.

Anderton warned environmental groups their movement would suffer if they failed to give enough credit to farmers for their efforts to protect the environment.

"If you don't give credit where credit is due, or you paint hard-working, ordinary New Zealanders as villains, our credibility suffers."

He said he had given up listening to the Business Roundtable when its "fundamentalist approach became predictable and divorced from the real world".

But he also noted that some in the primary sector were in denial on the environmental impacts of farming.

There needed to be a more co-operative approach to help address the environmental issues related to farming, which still accounted for a major share of the economy and exports.

"Strong collaboration and effective partnerships will be the key to success."

The environmental friendliness of New Zealand farming practices was becoming increasingly important in overseas markets.

The impacts of our production systems were becoming a defining issue for the present generation of farmers and horticulturalists, he said.

He applauded the work being done by farmers to protect the environment but criticised those who thought lifting environmental performance was irrelevant.

Meanwhile, veteran environmentalist Guy Salmon, the executive director of Ecologic, promoted a capital gains tax as a way of protecting the environment.

Salmon said this would help take the heat out of dairy farm prices and thereby reduce pressure to farm so intensively to ensure adequate returns.