David Farrar: Meet the Greens – Agriculture

The second Greens policy I am looking at is Agriculture. They key aspects are:

• Ban all synthetic nitrogen fertilisers

• Adjusting stocking rates according to the holding capacity of the land;

So what would this cost?

• The ban on nitrogen fertilisers has been estimated to cost the economy $19.6 billion and destroy 70,000 jobs. The only country on Earth to do this was Sri Lanka, which led to soaring food prices, reduced crop yields, and a major economic crisis, before they backtracked. So the Greens are advocating for something that has been proven to be a disaster

• The adjusting stocking rates policy is code for shooting cows because they fart and burp too much. They have talked in the past about a 20% reduction, which would reduce export earnings by $5.4 billion a year.

So policy number 2 would cost the economy $25 billion a year and get rid of 70,000 jobs. Makes their ACC policy look modest.

David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders