Source: Greenpeace New Zealand
The way New Zealand farms affects us all, from the safety of our drinking water to how we’re impacted by the climate crisis.
Right now, the Government is making long-term decisions about the infrastructure and opportunities they invest in as we figure out what New Zealand’s economy could look like in a post-Covid world.
We have an opportunity to shape our society for the better. This is a once in a generation chance to shift New Zealand’s agriculture sector to higher-value, more resilient, regenerative farming, and we want to hear your ideas of how to do it.
At its core, regenerative agriculture is about farming with the environment, not against it. That means using natural systems to your advantage (like planting a crop that puts nitrogen into the soil), instead of trying to exploit them to get what you need (like dumping a whole lot of synthetic nitrogen fertiliser on the ground). You can read a little more here on what we mean when we talk about ‘regenerative agriculture’.
Around the world, many Governments have seen how regenerative farming can improve outcomes for farmers, communities and the environment, and have increased their public spending, policies and programs to support it.
Here are some of the ways other countries have invested in regenerative agriculture:
- Setting up large-scale composting facilities, on farms and off
- Subsidies for farmers who use regenerative methods
- Making it free and simple for farms to get organic certification
- Dedicating entire universities to researching and developing regenerative agriculture techniques
- Training and advising farmers on regenerative farming methods
We’re consulting with leading regenerative farmers across Aotearoa about how they think the Government should support regenerative agriculture, and we want your ideas, too. Whether you’re a home gardener, you’ve worked on farms before, or you simply give too much of a shit to let our rivers get full of cow shit, jump into the comments below and tell us how you think New Zealand can make the switch to regenerative agriculture.
Here are a couple of questions to start you off:
- What kind of Government support do you think would help speed up a nationwide transition to regenerative farming?
- What kinds of things could the government put public money towards to better support the existing regenerative farming sector?