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Planting pines for carbon credits as a greenhouse gas emissions solution is a wasteful quick fix that sets us up for bigger problems down the line, Kerry Irvine says.
“It’s short-term thinking that locks in poor land use and will come back to bite us in terms of the environment, rural community viability and the economy,” the newly elected Federated Farmers Nelson president says.
He sees no problem with genuine production forestry, with timber being a significant export commodity and a way for farmers to diversify income streams.
“The issue is carbon-driven forestry.
“A bunch of investors – a good number of them offshore – make a mint claiming carbon credits while pastoral farming is displaced.”
Latest data suggests total farm conversions to forestry since 2017 exceeds 300,000 hectares, resulting in the loss of more than two million stock units.
“Markets keep telling us there’s strong long-term demand for high-quality, grass-fed protein in the form of red meat. Carbon credits earn New Zealand nothing,” Irvine says.
ETS forestry distortions mean there’s little incentive for carbon-emitting industries to invest in cleaner technologies, he says.
“What happens to all those carbon forest trees when their sequestering peaks? Plenty of them aren’t going to get cut down.
“Are we going to see the Gisborne problem repeated, with pines and debris sliding into our waterways when big storms blow through?”
The scourge of feral pests coming out of forestry is well-known to farmers but it’s the fire risk top of Irvine’s mind.
The Pigeon Valley fire in the Nelson-Tasman district in late summer 2019 was New Zealand’s largest wildfire before being overtaken by the Lake Ōhau fire a year later.
“Flames raced through 2400 hectares so fast. If it wasn’t for farmland, it would have burned right to the sea,” Irvine says.
“That was production forestry too, where trees are spaced and pruned.”
Irvine says the Nelson province has largely been spared the carbon forestry rush of recent years, but he recognises the seriousness of the problem elsewhere.
He also backs the Save our Sheep campaign to the hilt.
“Our local land use challenge is hops. We’ve probably lost about 2000 hectares of sheep, beef and dairy farms to the hop boom.
“At the conversion stage there’s work for contractors but once the hops are established it’s mainly only work for RSE guys from the Pacific Islands.”
It’s no surprise Irvine is a defender of the sheep and beef sector. While his father ran a trucking and quarrying business, the family also had a farm at Tapawera.
After high school Irvine trained at Telford and went shearing to earn money while he looked to land a farm job.
That shearing stint stretched to 15 years, taking him all over New Zealand, Australia and further afield.
He says it was a lot of fun but eventually enthusiasm for shearing 300 sheep a day and living out of a suitcase ebbed.
It was a bit of a relief for he and wife Pamela to come back to the family farm to “so-called ‘settle down’”, he says.
When his father bought the property an hour south of Nelson, bordering Kahurangi National Park, it was pretty run down.
“We’ve worked away, built up the fertility, knocked out as much gorse as we can.”
At 700 hectares, roughly 400 hectares-effective, they now run about 1000 ewes, 150 breeding cattle and 200-300 fattening lambs.
With red deer and wild pigs on his doorstep for hunting, it’s a lifestyle Irvine wouldn’t trade for anything.
“I’ve always been a country boy. I go to the city and can’t wait to get home.”
His dad was a Feds man and Irvine saw the value and satisfaction of “standing up for other farmers”.
He filled in when former Nelson meat and wool chair Brent Hodgkinson went on holiday to Australia, including attending a Meat and Wool Council meeting in Wellington.
He enjoyed the experience and when Brent returned, Irvine stayed in the role – for eight years.
He succeeds Murchison dairy farmer Stephen Todd as president.
Irvine says Federated Farmers’ advocacy to central and local government has proven to be extremely effective in knocking down the worst of impractical red tape.
“It’s a helluva challenge to run a farm in this modern world but working together under the federation’s banner, we can make a difference.
“The people in Federated Farmers are awesome. I could go anywhere in New Zealand and catch up with friends I’m made at Meat and Wool and Dairy Councils.
“In the end, it’s the good people who really make Federated Farmers tick.”
Federated Farmers, New Zealand’s leading independent rural advocacy organisation, has established a news and insights partnership with AgriHQ, the country’s leading rural publisher, to give the farmers of New Zealand a more informed, united and stronger voice. Federated Farmers news and commentary appears each week in its own section of the Farmers Weekly print edition and online.