In late June this
year we were often shrouded in thick fog, driving was perilous early in the
morning and even Auckland airport was closed more than once. It was kind of
like the ‘fog’ surrounding the Emissions Trading Scheme and with the firing of Nick
Smith it may be lifting a little.
Greenpeace might be members of the Nick Smith
fan club, reports Robin Grieve of the NZ Pastoral Farming Climate Research, but
there are not many others. There were probably quite a few really glad to see
him out of the Climate Change portfolio. According to the NBR “many in business
sighed with relief when one of the ETS greatest advocates was removed from both
Environment and Climate Change portfolios”. I guess we get to thank Bronwyn
Pullar for that!
Tim Groser is now in the driving seat. Apparently he has
acknowledged that the current way of dealing with livestock emissions is
inappropriate. It is also encouraging that he said “no other country in the world
had put a carbon price on agricultural emissions. “We are not going to be the
first to do this.” John Key also changed his previous stance that “farmers must
do their fair share” to “the Government would not put New Zealand farmers at
a “complete disadvantage” to others around the world”.
And speaking of complete disadvantage, I would be
interested in his interpretation of the focus on our pork industry. Certainly
some of our practices can be improved, but of course the expectations add cost.
That would be okay but how come Mexico is allowed to export raw pork into New
Zealand?
Can anyone tell me with any authority that mexican commercial pig
farming is of a much higher standard than ours and they are completely free of
industry crippling diseases? The answer is you can’t because it simply isn’t
so. But their pork is cheap. So how can this be? Well we apparently have a
trade agreement, a condition of which is free access for Mexico’s pork to NZ.
We
have established our border protection isn’t that good with the most recent
example being the PSA blight on our Kiwifruit industry which we now know came
from China, you know, the place where you get kids toys with lead based paint
courtesy of another free trade agreement.
Perhaps there is some subtext that
I’m missing? Let’s review - We introduce rules and regulations for our food
producers which increase the cost to the consumer. The standards also protect
us from being poisoned. But we sign agreements which allow other countries that
don’t have the same high standards for rearing and production, to
export into New Zealand at a significantly cheaper price to the consumer. In
the process the NZ industry goes broke and if that doesn’t happen, the industry
will be wiped out by the introduction of disease.
Oh well we can console
ourselves with a product we produce pretty well, Beer. And there is a bonus. I
found out from Hannah Samuel through her Reputationz e-newsletter that beer contains
the 'miracle molecule' nicotinamide ribosidey (NR) which allegedly helps
fight fat, prevent diabetes and improve muscle performance. Whew, that is good
news. I must investigate further and see if it wards off Mexican swine fever. It’s
a wonder we are living so long really.
I turned 63 recently and momentarily
considered my mortality. When I was much younger, I just couldn’t envisage
being that age. In fact people, who had worked for the same employer all their
life, retired at 60 and died not long after. We were amazed when we came across
someone older than 70, a rare occurrence indeed. And you could tell because
they looked really old.
Well, here I am some 40 years later talking to a gentleman
who had spent all day standing at our A & P Show judging ponies. He was
also involved in working parties considering how we might protect the equine
industry here from biosecurity risks such as the equine flu which got into NZ a
few years ago through lax standards in Australia.
He told me he was thinking of
slowing down a bit, after all, he said, he was over 80 now! You could have
pushed me over with a feather. I stared at him stupidly because I just couldn’t
believe he was 70 let alone 80.
But I bet he appreciated the irony in the news
that New Zealand got to be involved in a huge maritime navy exercise run by the
americans. It was based at Pearl Harbour. Because we have a nuclear free policy
we had to park our ship in the domestic port. The Japanese were participating
in the exercise as well. Remember them, the ones who bombed the shit out of
americans in that very port - they got to park their warships alongside the
amercians in the naval port.
It seems there should be some connection between
that and Mexican pork don’t you think.
