Philippa Stevenson: The customer is always right

New Zealand's environmental movement would be gutted without its rich core of farmer environmentalists.

Today they are revered elder statesmen but when they started out, many a rural neighbour regarded them as crackpots.

But for every farmer who has been the backbone of farsighted projects preserving water catchments or wildfowl, there are probably 10 following in their footsteps, 30 voluntarily employing sound environmental practices, 50 waiting to see if there's a buck in it and 10 who'll only go along under threat.

A rough breakdown of farmer attitude, maybe, but recent events support the sentiment.

In 1993, at the instigation of tireless farmer environmentalist Gordon Stephenson, the first farm environmental awards were held in the Waikato. Their reach has steadily widened and this year's awards will be held in seven regions.

They no doubt encourage farmers to marry good production and environmental practices.

In contrast, it was Fish and Game's dirty dairying campaign that hastened the signing of the Dairying and Clean Streams Accord a decade later in 2003.

The accord, an agreement between dairy company Fonterra, regional councils and the Ministries of Environment and Agriculture, includes the goal of 90 per cent of dairy cattle being excluded from streams, rivers and lakes by 2012.

Then there's the farmer reaction to last year's Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment's report Growing for Good: Intensive farming, sustainability and New Zealand's environment.

At its launch in November, I described the report as measured, taking into account a Gordian knot of demands from people's expectations for quality food, farmer desire for profitability and the wish for an unpolluted environment.

Many farmers disagree. Last week, commissioner Morgan Williams talked to some at a meeting of Dairy Farmers of NZ national council in Hamilton. Afterwards, DFNZ chairman Kevin Wooding said farmers had reservations about some of the the report and his council intended to have it independently critiqued before deciding whether to give it a "big tick" or a "big question mark."

Wooding also told media that farmers' patience was "running a little thin with so-called expert commentary from environmental academics and suburbia telling us to get our act together or else.

"There is an urgent need to have good forums with all the stakeholders, which includes economists, to give a balanced view of the need for sustainable agriculture."

Just such a forum was held in Hamilton the same day - the fifth of seven workshops on the report hosted by the commissioner and the Landcare Trust .

As at earlier workshops, a hundred people debated problems and solutions on New Zealand's farming and environment front. A number of farmers questioned the fairness of focusing on farming's effect on the environment while ignoring problems streaming from cities.

But a general acceptance that New Zealand's future would depend on sustainable farming - although the jury is still out on a precise definition - led to a key discussion on leadership.

Who or what will it take to kickstart a process to, as Williams suggested, redesign the whole farming system rather than tinker around with "end of pipe solutions"?
The acknowledged urban/rural tension - the paralysis of two sides insisting they'll only move when the other does - is not helping.

In Britain, the BSE crisis followed closely by the disastrous foot-and-mouth disease outbreak prompted a raft of changes to farming practices. It's not the kind of circuit breaker that New Zealand wants or can afford.

But what will break the logjam when a report such as Growing for Good prompts a leading farmer group to respond with yet another report?

Also addressing DFNZ last week, Environment Waikato chief executive Harry Wilson warned that farmers ignored urban people at their peril.

"They want to go out on their boats and they don't want algal bloom. We have to educate people that there's a trade-off between environmental effects and economic growth. It's about finding a balance."

Underscoring the point, the UN has predicted half the world's population would live in cities in just two years - up from 30 per cent in 1950.

By 2030, 5 billion people - 61 per cent of the global population - will live in cities.

If farmers find things tipped against them now what will it be like when they are so outnumbered by urbanites?

City dwellers are their customers and the customer is always right.

That seems reason enough to get on with the job of ensuring farming remains productive but not overly polluting. Five billion people crammed into a few cities will find motivations for keeping their patch clean.