The Hawke's Bay A&P Show has been cancelled this year due to Covid restrictions. Photo / File
The Hawke's Bay A&P Show has been cancelled this year due to Covid restrictions. Photo / File
Covid's proved a showstopper.
The only previous no-show in the Hawke's Bay A&P Society's 158-year hosting of its annual agricultural showcase was during WWII.
That fact underscores the show's endurance and, many would argue, its worth.
Yet while for some Wednesday's announcement was a sad day, for others the newselicited the same question which I've often heard asked at this time of year.
That is, how relevant are the offerings of this aged agricultural show?
It suggests the town-country divide is alive and kicking.
Recent regional issues like the Ruataniwha Dam debate certainly saw that wedge widened.
So too the amalgamation wrangle, where city-slicking Napier sparred bare fisted with its Hastings country cousin (the residents of which an unknown Napier personality once dubbed "ruminants").
Agriculture is both the region's founder and provider, writes Mark Story. Photo / File
Then there's the hot button of farming sustainability, where despite embracing more agro-ecological techniques, our men and women of the land are still regarded by some as environmentally apathetic.
It's perhaps why the country's A&P societies' brief, and thus their shows, have morphed from showcasing farm tech and breeding advances to entertainment and pushing the town-meets-country billing.
Showgrounds Hawke's Bay Tomoana purposely exemplifies this, straddling both rural and urban land, with its proximity to rail once meaning stock didn't have to be driven through urban areas and upset townies.
The reason behind this year's forced cancellation has also forced us see how reliant we are on our pastoral guardians.
It's why we should look to remediate the urban-rural gulf.
