The Wall Of Green Is Coming
Make no mistake, the wall of green is coming, relentlessly.
It was not long ago that we were warned of an environmental disaster, if pine monoculture went ahead.
Pines modify the natural ecosystems so much that the unique New Zealand landscape is lost and native plants and animals are evicted or die. They also suck valuable water out of catchments, add big costs to farming and affect tourism and recreation:
Well, who bloody cares!
The government can tell us that pretty confidently that a 100 million pine seedlings have been sold this year.
https://farmersweekly.co.nz/section/forestry/view/pine-seedlings-sold-out-before-planting
Farmers are being incentivized into monoculture. The cost of North Island farmland suitable for forestry has gone from $6656 a hectare last year to $13,128. That is far above the price you could afford to pay to produce food.
The constant warnings of looming food shortages…they are being created as you sip your flat white and carry on #bekindbeblind.
It’s even crazier when you consider the iconic Matiawa Station in Marlborough. The 1319 hectares was a sheep and cattle breeding enterprise. It produced food and now produces trees, which when cut, will release the carbon.
Then you have Meridian planting more than a million trees across good farmland to reduce its carbon footprint. It would be better off charging Tiwai Point a fair price for electricity, thereby closing it and reducing the nation’s emissions.
Further, it boasts 100% renewable energy so why is it reducing our capacity for food production by planting trees?
Daily headlines are skewed towards forestry, such as the one below.
With carbon prices unlikely to wind back from their current high, farmers are being urged to think hard about the opportunities the market’s prospects could offer for their land-use options and succession planning.😏
Virtue signalling is in, but have folks completely taken leave of their senses, to not see the disaster ahead?!
https://farmersweekly.co.nz/section/agribusiness/view/carbon-price-brings-opportunity
Column Author: Jaspreet Boporai. a 42 year old wife, mum of two kids (6, 4) and a dairy farmer. She and her husband manage 1500 cows over two farms in Western Southland for a large equity partnership.
Jaspreet got her degree in accounting from Massey and has also been bookkeeping for the last decade.
She and her husband moved to NZ in 2009, swapping 80 hour weeks in corporate banking for prob longer weeks in farming! (her husband has done his MBA and Jaspreet was a mortgage underwriter in India).
Hailing from Punjab (the epicentre of Indian farmer protests), India’s wheat basket, the love of land runs strong in the couple and wanting to go large scale farming got them to New Zealand.
Jaspreet’s family has been serving in the Indian army for many generations and nearly 30 years ago, her dad served in the Indian army contingent under the aegis of the United Nations in Africa. Thus, began her interest in all things UN related!
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