New Zealand can play a key role in addressing global food security issues, according to the Hon David Carter, the New Zealand minister for agriculture, biosecurity & forestry.
Speaking this week at a meeting of the Chartered Institute of Marketing’s Food, Drink & Agriculture Group, Carter said: “New Zealand has a huge interest in agricultural development. We are ready to play our role in sharing our agricultural expertise.”
But Carter warned against the danger of not completing the Doha round of trade talks and the possible reintroduction of export subsidies, drawing on his own experience as a farmer when, in the 1980s, taxpayers’ subsidies were removed “in one fell swoop” from New Zealand’s agricultural industry.
“New Zealand farmers went through a painful transition, but 20 years on I challenge you to come to New Zealand and find a single farmer who wants to go back. We have had 20 years of productivity growth since then,” he said.
However, Carter, pictured, insisted that the production gains of the last 20 years “won’t sustain us through the next 20 years. New Zealand only produces 0.02 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions - but half of that is from food production. If New Zealand decreases its productivity to meet its [emissions] commitments, then alternative production will occur in countries with more energy-intensive farming.”
Carter advocated a focus on developing countries in the food security crisis. “Key to addressing food security is helping developing nations that could produce the food, realise that they can,” he said. “I am positive that a solution will be found to reduce emissions from agriculture without reducing production… I don’t claim New Zealand has all the answers, but we have certainly found a number of questions and our history shows that, over time, we have risen to those challenges.”
Carter also added that the Zespri single desk marketing model for kiwifruit, which has hit headlines recently due to producer Turners & Growers calling for deregulation, was highly unlikely to change. “While 85 per cent of kiwifruit growers say they are satisfied with the current system, it is hardly likely the government will change the situation,” he said.
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