The exercise was a mixture of one that helped to restore my faith in our local farm based economy but also another that reinforced my concerns about the contemptuous manner in which the farming industry is being treated by the current government.
Who would have thought that it would be possible to have two views of the same cornerstone industry that are so diametrically opposed.
Yet here we are lamenting that those who have the power to safeguard the jobs and welfare of those who make it happen, actually doing their best to destroy our number one asset - all in the name of an already discredited ideology. It is criminal activity and those who are responsible should be held to account.
These recurring thoughts were brought into focus again almost by accident although we have all been witnessing what is becoming a slow death for some time.
My conversations with the shearers helped me to understand how easy it is for relatively young men and women to become wise beyond their years simply as a result of personal circumstances that are or were not entirely of their own making.
In some ways their short life experiences have already indelibly scarred their individual personalities but, from what l saw, they have both learned from their fleeting negative lifestyles and are well on the way to making something of themselves.
We should applaud their determination to want a better future for themselves and their whanau.
It is somewhat ironic that one of the shearers is already working two jobs simultaneously - one of which is planting pine trees on Matanui which was recently acquired by an overseas buyer along with its much larger, but equally attractive livestock property, Huiarua ( a combined acreage of some 6.2 thousand hectares of the most pristine “red meat” producing farmland in the country) on the East Coast.
It doesn’t take much to work out why the new owners have introduced a crash course of planting that will see both properties almost fully planted by the end of next winter.
They obviously are fearful that a change of government may see their opportunity reversed if not curtailed altogether - but unfortunately, as much as we would want it to happen, you wouldn’t bet on it.
It looks as if the “jewel in the crown” is gone forever, sacrificed on the altar of idealogical madness when it didn’t need to happen this way.
I have said many times before, that there is more than enough marginal unplanted hill country available in this country that would satisfy the government goal of reducing carbon emissions 50% by 2030 without forcing a single hectare of our very best out of livestock production.
I believe the government knows that to be true and will be hoping that this irrational decision will be the last in its search for idealogical purity.
However, my guess is anything is possible with these incompetents and we should buckle up expecting the worst while hoping for a change in direction foreshadowed by a change of government.
It can’t happen soon enough.
Clive Bibby is a commentator, consultant, farmer and community leader, who lives in Tolaga Bay.
5 comments:
Maximum damage is likely to happen in NZ by this ideologically flawed Marxist government before the next election. The Breaking Views platform continues to challenge the State controlled narrative from a hugely compromised MSM. I congratulate the contributors that possess the energy and the passion to deliver the truth.
The govt has recognised the error of their ways with pines but maori have thwarted change. An easy income for them comes before any national interest.
It would appear that most of the Maori land going into pines, at least here on the Coast, is marginal hill country which is an acceptable way to achieve the 50% reduction in GHG emissions by 2030 and will be the best method for bringing these properties back to an economic viable state. It is the criminal misuse of our best grazing land that should never have been allowed to happen.
Matanui and Huiarua are the best examples of high producing intensive farming properties that were leading our drive for export income on the back of the best red meat prices we have had in decades - at a time when the other Government policies have destroyed what used to be our number one earner of overseas exchange - the tourism industry.
It will take years to recover from this period of idealogical insanity .
Whilst I can understand your reasoning, Clive, it all comes to naught when and if you realise that there is no scientific proof at all in the vilification of carbon dioxide as a so-called Greenhouse gas. To even consider that .04% of the atmosphere being carbon dioxide and capable of any significant change to our weather is obviously ridiculous, even if this view is supported by many who call themselves "climate scientists". They are actually political hacks whose financial interests have been compromised by a gaggle of unscientific ignorant politicians. "Repeat a lie often enough" and it becomes the truth is truly truthful! What we do urgently need is a huge INCREASE in the proportion of cRON DIOXIDE IN OUR ATMOSPHERE, NOT LESS!
Mike Lowe is right. Carbon dioxide does not cause temperature increase in the atmosphere, any person that can reason logically should be able to grasp that fact. In fact the higher the better for plant growth, at least to a degree. Sunshine and cloud cover determine that. Look how massively the heat of the day disperses at night when the cloud cover is absent, and the retention of warmth with a layer of cloud. How can 0.4% of a gas in the air make any significant difference? However this false narrative (read scam) of carbon dioxide causing global warming has been a financial boon to many research scientists. David Coory.
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