Federated Farmers faces green backlash

Federated Farmers' president Charlie Pedersen's harangue against environmentalists yesterday was an attack on New Zealanders who value a clean, green environment, says Greenpeace.

"We all benefit from a healthy environment," said Greenpeace spokeswoman Cindy Baxter. "The right to breathe clean air, drink clean water and eat food that has not been poisoned are the fundamental rights of all New Zealanders."

New Zealand's clean, green reputation was one of the things that made people most proud, she said.

Mr Pedersen lashed out at the green movement at Federated Farmers' annual meeting in Nelson, saying it placed concerns about the environment before the economic wellbeing of the nation.

He said environmental causes had been lifted to a religious status in New Zealand, and that environmentalism threatened to become the politics of envy, reducing the brightest and hardest-working people to the level of the ordinary and the uninspired.

"Shame on the people who elevate environmentalism to a religious status, shame on you for your arrogance, shame on all of us for allowing the environmentalists' war against the human race to ... take hold."

Mr Pedersen claimed New Zealand's mineral wealth was largely in the conservation estate, "riches locked away from contributing to the betterment of the lives of ordinary New Zealanders".

Ms Baxter said that while Federated Farmers lobbied against sensible climate change policies, its members were likely to be the worst hit by climate change: more floods, droughts, pests and diseases.

"It's all very well to rant about private property rights, but if your property is washed away because more tropical cyclones hit New Zealand, your property rights aren't much good. We're in this together."

Forest and Bird advocacy manager Kevin Hackwell said Mr Pedersen's attack did not reflect the views of many farmers who worked to protect the environment, or of consumers who wanted environmentally friendly farm produce.

An Environment Ministry study had shown New Zealand's "clean and green" image added $30,000 a year to the income of the average farmer by enabling their product to attract premium prices.

A Department of Conservation spokesman also said Mr Pedersen was wrong in his claim that mineral wealth was locked away on the DOC estate. The minister had approved 90 per cent of the applications for mining DOC land, including the Pike River coal mine and the Oceana gold mine at Reefton.

Cath Wallace, a Wellington economist who is co-chair of the Environmental and Conservation Organisation lobby, an umbrella group for 61 organisations, said Mr Pedersen's comments were "hysterical" and that he had missed the point of debate about sustainable development which was about improving human wellbeing while avoiding damage to the natural systems that kept the planet functioning.

- NZPA