Greenpeace have been running a series
of TV advertisements lately in which they oppose the development of land in the
McKenzie Basin for dairying. It’s dystopian, dramatically shot in black and
white and it pisses me off every time I see it.
It doesn’t annoy me because of their
opposition, after all a fair chunk of dairy farmers find themselves in
agreement with Greenpeace on this issue, even Fonterra have said they’d rather
the conversion didn’t go ahead. As an aside, Fonterra are legally obliged to
pick up the milk from these new farms because of the Dairy Industry
Restructuring Act, despite their market share in the South Island dipping below
80% some years ago. Maybe that’s a topic for another column.
No, the advertisement irritates with
its use of the phrase “industrial farming”, a term that is never defined yet
seems to have found its way into almost every discussion about dairy farming in
New Zealand. I personally think its disingenuous and lazy language unsuitable
for describing New Zealand’s pastoral dairying, but I was curious to see what
Twitter thought.
“I move”, I tweeted, “the term
‘industrial farming’ be struck from use until the people using it can provide a
clear, concise definition. It’s hyperbole, pure and simple.”
The response was immediate. “I move”,
replied Amanda, the less funny half of the comedy duo The Fan Brigade, “the
term ‘DairyMan’ be struck from use indefinitely.”
The other responses I got ranged from
Wikipedia definitions (high density farming in sheds or feedlots) to outright
pearl clutching (the practice of farming where the operator is not entirely
contained within its boundaries and can no longer be run solely by one or two
people).
No two people could agree on a
definition and the replies were characterised by a worrying lack of knowledge
about how we actually farm. Irrigation was a common theme despite most dairy
farms in New Zealand not being irrigated, as was scale. When I asked if a one
hundred cow farm stocked at 5 cows per hectare was more or less industrial than
a thousand cow farm stocked at 3 cows per hectare I didn’t receive a single
reply.
Megan Hands, a Canterbury based
consultant, chimed in with some facts and figures that were met with disbelief.
People simply couldn’t accept that the average stocking rate in this country is
2.9 cows/ha.
The replies came in for several days,
it transpires the terms industrial farming and factory farming have been used
to great effect in the USA to demonise the agricultural sector there and it
saddens me to see it being so eagerly adopted here.
I know Greenpeace saw my tweet, they
liked several of the more negative replies I received, but they didn’t see fit
to provide their own definition. As farmers all we can do is engage politely
and try to educate others while understanding where they’re coming from, but
it’s getting harder by the day.
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