Angus Kebbell talks to Damien O'Connor about sequestration, He Waka Eke Noa consultation, forestry's march and locking up food-producing land so companies can continue to pollute

Some interesting research has landed this week which provides further proof that New Zealand is already one of the most efficient food producers on the planet. I will be taking a look at this in coming weeks but one of the things the research found is that net carbon sequestration by trees within farms was significant and equated to 29% of the total on-farm GHG emissions.

The meat processing stage contributed 2–4% of the carbon footprint, while post-processing was 2–6%. Despite the long shipping distances involved, NZ beef and sheep meat supplied to international markets have a full life-cycle carbon footprint at the lower end of other published estimates.

It can also been shown that eating red meat 2-3 times a week over the course of an entire year is just under the carbon footprint of a single passenger’s return flight from Auckland to Christchurch. Food for thought there.

This week on Factum-Agri I caught up with New Zealand’s Agriculture minister Damien O’Conner to talk about some of the key challenges farmers face.

I asked O’Connor why the Government reduced the coverage of sequestration in the Government’s proposal when their own modelling showed a potential 20% reduction in the sheep and beef sector as a result of afforestation and agricultural pricing?

“It doesn't show a 20% reduction in the sheep and beef sector, what it says is a reduction possible reduction in net revenue. And as we know, on any farm revenue can go up and down because of a whole lot of things, environmental changes year to year, prices and everything. So that doesn't mean that those farms go out of production. So I completely reject the assertion that people have made and extrapolation from the documents. How individual farms deal with that is up to them.”

When asked about whether the Government would make changes to their response to He Waka Eke Noa’s proposal, the Minister seemed to respond positively.

“There are questions in there because it's a consultation document, of course we're prepared to make changes. That's why it's out for consultation you know, that's always been there. And the questions around sequestration, obvious if you look at He Waka Eke Noa’s proposal they point to the need for more scientific work on some sequestration. And the fact that some of that may not be able to come in to any system until 2027, because of the need to go through this. We agree with that. And so the proposal was to come back with those areas that ETS creditable , and then to look at other areas, I personally have a view that we should be measuring soil and trying to get it into the system.”

The Government has been slow to put meaningful limits on forestry offsetting and the climate change commission is already saying too much is already happening, and of course we are the only country allowing 100% of offsetting through an ETS system, so I put this to the minister.

“Yeah, look, I don't think any of us are comfortable with all of that forestry planting, and I've gone back and had a look at some of the figures that we had over the last three decades and the fact, and sheep and beef area with we've had a 12% reduction from 1990 to 2000 a 13% reduction in the next decade and a 15% reduction, we've had land use change across our country for a long time and we're still at a lower level of afforestation, than we had in the peak of the late 1990s. And so we just have to keep that in mind. The intervening on farmers right to sell land to who they like, to Kiwis, is something that any government's reluctant to do in, if we were to directly intervene, and we’ve be trying to find the right balance between clearly the signals that are necessary, but not over imposing on farmers rights to sell, it's not been government selling remember these are farmers selling their properties and to people who want to put them in trees, and these are kiwis who want to put them in trees.”

It was pleasing to hear that the door is not shut on continuing to work with farmers and industry to get a fair outcome for New Zealand farmers, I believe if we really care about supporting our most important sector and there is consensus around 2027 being a date for when sequestration can be accurately measured, why are we not waiting until then to introduce the emissions levy. If total on farm sequestration can be accurately measured at that point then we have an accurate on farm net emission profile.

He's right in saying we need to encourage young people into agriculture and into land ownership, farming is in our DNA and that should be harnessed, but how is that going to happen when polluting corporations are allowed to swallow up land at a premium, plant trees and walk away? Simply put 100% of offsetting in this country has to go, if current policy makers really care about encouraging young into the industry and indeed rural communities.

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Angus Kebbell is the Producer at Tailwind Media. You can contact him here.