Whanganui Chronicle
  • Whanganui Chronicle home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Taranaki
  • National Park
  • Whakapapa
  • Ohakune
  • Raetihi
  • Taihape
  • Marton
  • Feilding
  • Palmerston North

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • New Plymouth
  • Whanganui
  • Palmertson North
  • Levin

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Whanganui Chronicle

Farmers need to better prepare to deal with the barrage of regulations aimed at the sector

By Mike Cranstone, president of Whanganui Federated Farmers
Whanganui Chronicle·
9 Jun, 2021 05:00 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Whanganui Federated Farmers president Mike Cranstone calls for a stronger voice for farming to counter an increasing number of attacks on the sector. Photo / Supplied

Whanganui Federated Farmers president Mike Cranstone calls for a stronger voice for farming to counter an increasing number of attacks on the sector. Photo / Supplied

OPINION:

Farmers need to consider how they can have a stronger voice to represent their industry as it faces an endless barrage of regulations.

To be effective, agriculture must identify who it should be lobbying, and what messages are going to garner support. It needs a strategy rather than ad hoc responses, and we need to resource it properly, so we have a serious crack at defending the future of our industry.

The threat is not only to agriculture but to New Zealand's future prosperity, this is too important for us to continue bumbling along.

Agriculture is facing rules and restrictions on many fronts; Freshwater, biodiversity, animal welfare, greenhouse gas emissions and also bearing the brunt of rampant local government rate rises.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Unfortunately, most of this regulation is impractical to implement, will achieve marginal
environmental gains compared to the momentum that's already under way, and even worse any economic impact analysis has never been done or is woefully inadequate.

This should be no surprise as the working groups excluded agricultural representation, and the consultation and select committee process had been bypassed.

There has been discussion on what organisation is best to represent the agriculture industry.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Federated Farmers had the advocacy space to themselves for a long time, and with their experience they understand and do this role very efficiently and effectively.

B+Lamb NZ and DairyNZ have moved into the advocacy space alongside their core role of technology transfer on farm. Some commentators feel this is duplication, but each sector has different pressure points from impending regulations and each sector needs to find its own solutions.

What is critical is that agriculture is united with the same message when pushing back on the government; politicians and the media is always looking for a weak party when searching for acceptance for their proposals.

There is room for different groups lobbying for agriculture, because there are different audiences that need different tactics to engage with. Feds and the levy bodies are trying to maintain a constructive relationship with government ministers and officials so that they still have a place at the negotiating table.

This measured response often frustrates farmers who want a more vocal opposition, and that is where groups such as Fifty Shades of Green and Groundswell also have their place.

Farmers are hugely passionate about their farms, their families and their communities, and somehow we need to harness this in our opposition. An effective way of influencing the government is we capture the support of urban voters; the silent majority of whom are rational, understand the importance of the agriculture economy and like to see people treated fairly.

But we need to think about our message, we cannot afford to portray ourselves as redneck farmers resisting the need to improve our practices. We should however promote the environmental progress that we have made through farmers' own initiative and investment.

Whilst Groundswell is calling for farmers to bar entry to regional council officers, it should also get each farmer to document the environmental work that they have done on their back over the past 5 years.

We need bold actions to get the media attention, but when we have it, we must make sure we deliver the right message to urban New Zealand. Like a hand of trump cards, it needs to be a combination of messages that can be dealt to maintain the conversation and to build the public pressure on the government.

Part of that message will be that there is a better way for the country of making environmental gains and climate targets than the dictatorial regulations being enforced by Ministers Parker and Shaw.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The current regulations threaten the future ability of farmers to farm profitably and sustainably.

The farming sector needs multiple lobby groups, well-resourced and co-ordinated in their messages to different target audiences. To be successful farmers need to contribute financially, be prepared to get off farm to support the causes and do their bit to show urban New Zealand that we already have a great environmental story of progress.

Farmers need to front up themselves to support our lobby groups, otherwise they may deny their next generation the great opportunities of a farming career.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Whanganui Chronicle

Whanganui Chronicle

Kāinga Ora needs to be ‘responsive to need’, says minister

04 Jul 06:00 PM
Whanganui Chronicle

Work begins on key phase of port project

04 Jul 06:00 PM
Whanganui Chronicle

Pop star to speak on new book at Whanganui Literary Fest

04 Jul 04:57 PM

There’s more to Hawai‘i than beaches and buffets – here’s how to see it differently

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Whanganui Chronicle

Kāinga Ora needs to be ‘responsive to need’, says minister

Kāinga Ora needs to be ‘responsive to need’, says minister

04 Jul 06:00 PM

'We want to take a very detailed specific look at what Whanganui needs' – Chris Bishop.

Work begins on key phase of port project

Work begins on key phase of port project

04 Jul 06:00 PM
Pop star to speak on new book at Whanganui Literary Fest

Pop star to speak on new book at Whanganui Literary Fest

04 Jul 04:57 PM
Premium
Gardening: Pruning deciduous fruit trees and roses

Gardening: Pruning deciduous fruit trees and roses

04 Jul 04:00 PM
From early mornings to easy living
sponsored

From early mornings to easy living

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Whanganui Chronicle e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Whanganui Chronicle
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP