Clive Bibby: Fact checking raise alarms - but few answers

After watching TV One’s Sunday programme that featured an informative piece about the environmental problems we face using plastics, l tried to do some quick research into the alarming claims made suggesting this was a ticking time bomb we had to do something about.

As a farmer who has spent a lifetime depending on crossbred wools to provide a significant part of our “on farm” income (for years, it represented approximately 1/3rd of the average sheep and beef farmer’s income but now it is regarded as a significant cost), l know how important this product had been to our economic survival until relatively recently.

The facts are these.

Currently, the only positive the crossbred wool clip represents is in the number of jobs it offers rural communities in the shearing gangs it has traditionally supported but that is changing rapidly simply because farmers can’t afford to be running sheep that in fact add negatively to the “end of year” balance sheet.

Consequently there has been a relatively significant move away from crossbred sheep that need to be shorn towards breeds that malt naturally in the paddock and the demand for these “full frontal” more popular semi nude alternatives is reflected in sale topping receipts at weekly sheep sales around the country.

It isn’t hard to work out why this transition is taking place but where it will end and how important it will become to the shearing industry is still anybody’s guess.

What we do know is that the nation’s total crossbred clip is a massive 140,000 tonnes of greasy wool most of which is exported. We are and have been for a long time, the largest exporter of crossbred wools in the world.

So, if this previously major contributor to overseas funds were to be recycled here at home what would the pluses and minuses be for the internal economy?  - a good question but the answer is not quite that simple to find.

The statistics bandied around on the Sunday programme were obviously being used to scare the hell out of those watching and, from my perspective, easily succeeded in achieving that objective. That programme was designed to shock us into thinking about what we must do to reverse these alarming environmentally polluting trends.

How many people would have known that it won’t be long before “there are more pieces of plastic in the ocean than fish.

However, surprisingly we were not told, and it remains a mystery as to why - what are the alternatives to this huge tonnage of synthetic product that is destroying our planet simply because it is non-biodegradable.

Well, this is where the nation’s crossbred wool clip should come in.

It is no secret that crossbred wools make some of the best carpets and home insulation products on offer yet we appear to be reluctant users of them in the building industry to anywhere near the potential they represent.

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to work out how this alternative positive use of a product that is otherwise becoming a millstone around the nation’s neck is a no brainer.

Unfortunately, this proposal has been sitting there for some time, apparently waiting for a government decree or some such “order in council” that would allow it to happen.

Why isn’t it happening?

One can only assume that the building industry barons are politically more powerful than the government itself.

Really! Perhaps the Sunday Programme editors were too frightened to ask that question.

Too bad - the nation should be demanding answers if we are serious about doing what we can to save the planet here at home. Forget the grandstanding on overseas stages.

Our responsibilities to do our part in averting the consequences of climate change should remain focussed on our abilities to take action here at home.

Join me in asking your MP what he or she is going to do about it.

Clive Bibby is a commentator, consultant, farmer and community leader, who lives in Tolaga Bay.