Dr Jacqueline Rowarth: Food production means no holiday for NZ farmers

New Zealand farmers are literally making hay while the sun shines.

OPINION

While the rest of New Zealand enjoys a summer break, Kiwi farmers keep on producing food. Dr Jacqueline Rowarth says they should be acknowledged for the work they do all year round, not just when the sun is shining.

At the beginning of January, RNZ received a text saying: “What is it with all these tractors on the road? Is it Tractor Thursday or something?”

Much jocularity followed, including discussion around the role of tractors in the consumption of fossil fuel and the production of greenhouse gases.

But the answer is simple.

They were making hay while the sun shone.

Or they might have been involved in harvesting produce from market gardens and orchards.

Whatever the actual task, the tractors were working.

They were being driven by people employed in agriculture – contractors, farmers and growers. They were using fuel in harvesting fruit, vegetables, crops and pasture for times when grass growth is not good.

Feed planning is what dairy, deer, sheep and beef farmers do all the time.

Pasture-based, they work with their land and the weather (which means that they are working with nature) to create optimal conditions for their high-performance animals. It is what makes them some of the best farmers in the world.

Making hay while the sun shines means “taking advantage of a situation that is favourable while the chance exists”.

For many people on annual leave, this means driving to the beach or bach.

For farmers, the term is literal.

Fossil fuel use is considered important for holidaymakers for mental health and family relationships, but for farmers, it is their business (and by extension the export economy that supports the New Zealand lifestyle).

The work of farmers and growers in ever-increasing efficiency has helped keep food at a price that is no longer deemed acceptable from any perspective.

While consumers feel that “food is too expensive” the reality is that current returns to farmers and growers are too low for survival.

The UK Oxford Farming Conference 2024 top-level message makes the issue clear.

“Increasingly, farmers are leaving the sector and using the land for non-agricultural uses because they simply cannot afford to continue subsidising the cheap food that the UK consumer has been used to.”

Food is too cheap – the price of it in the supermarket is below the cost of production on-farm.

The result in Britain is that farming no longer makes financial sense.

A traditional farm is “struggling to sell what it produces – lamb, wheat, beef – at break-even point, let alone take a bare-bones income for those who live on it”.

Off-farm incomes “propping up the finances with another job” are common.

Dr Jacqueline Rowarth.

Of considerable concern is that for the next generation, “the prospect of working 24/7 to produce potatoes or apples or sausages or milk for a truculent public and an underpaying supermarket chain doesn’t seem all that alluring”.

Many countries, including New Zealand, are facing similar issues. Staffing shortages make the point.

So who will produce food in future?

Theories about alternative methods of food production, including precision fermentation and vertical farming, overlook that the former requires an energy source (sugar, which comes from crops, which require farmers and growers) and the latter produces vitamins in the form of young vegetables, not (at least not at a yield that is economic) carbohydrates or protein.

Listen to Rowena Duncum interview Dr Jacqueline Rowarth on The Country below:

The problem for UK farmers is that support mechanisms – subsidies – are being phased out.

In contrast, the OECD reports that support mechanisms have increased in many countries as governments try to shield consumers and producers from global crises and high inflation.

Just under half of the government support reported was in the form of “measures with the greatest potential for market distortions”.

These included border tariffs and subsidy payments based on output.

Market distortions do not encourage the efficiency of production. And what the world needs now to feed the population while protecting the environment and the biodiversity it contains is highly efficient production systems.

This means the fewest inputs for most yield.

It is the way to reduce land use and allow level biodiversity to flourish in situ – where it is natural for it to be.

The World Food Programme estimates up to 783 million people go to bed hungry every night.

Food security, which includes quantity, quality and affordability, is a global issue, and global leaders could be talking about the best land use – production for the fewest resources.

It’s time to get real. What foods do we need and where is it produced most efficiently?

New Zealand, famous for being a country with no subsidies and imposing few restrictions on imports, would have meat and milk for export.

Meat and milk contain the essential amino acids (EAA) needed for human metabolism.

New Zealand produces these EAA for lower environmental impact than most other countries can achieve.

We also produce potatoes, onions, squash, kiwifruit and pip and stone fruit, harvesting when the vegetables and fruit are in demand everywhere because they are high-quality – and it is winter in the Northern Hemisphere.

Food might not become cheaper in the future, but making it a global resource could help reduce environmental impact.

To ensure people are producing that food in future, farmers and growers should be acknowledged for the work they do all year round, not just when others are on holiday when the sun shines.

Every day is Tractor Day.

Dr Jacqueline Rowarth, an adjunct professor at Lincoln University, is a director on the boards of DairyNZ, Ravensdown and Deer Industry NZ.