While I have lived most of my life in Wainuiomata -in fact in two houses less then 100m apart – I spent nearly six years in the late 1970’s and early 1980s in Taumarunui.
Meeting the Open Country Cheese delegates reminded me of how easy it is for us to get caught up in our urban worlds, spending time with people who think in a very similar way to ourselves and who reinforce our own prejudices.
I went to Taumarunui in early 1979 because there was a requirement for teachers to do two years country service to get pay increases and the rental for school houses was minimal.
There was family there and I had spent some school holidays on farms in the 1960s. My own parents had spewnt two years there in the 1950s but had come back home to Wellington before I was born.
It was an interesting phase of my life, partly because of the people who lived in the area and partly because of the people who used to spend the night back in the days when it was much cheaper to drive from Wellington to Auckland or vice versa than fly but cars weren’t as reliable and the roads weren’t nearly as good either.
I get the feeling with the increasing urbanisation fewer Kiwis have been exposed to the sector which drives our economy – and we are poorer for it. That is one of the reasons I have decided to spend some time with Fonterra.
Oh come on Trevor, milk comes from cartons, right?
Good moove.
Should farming remain the sector that drives our economy?
No, I don’t think so. By getting our feet out of farming we expand our knowledge and opportunities.
As I’ve said elsewhere – not everyone wants to be a farmer.
I disagree Draco.
While I to certainly don’t want to be a farmer, it’s wrong to dismiss the rural sector and the people in it, because the sector is simply too vital.
because the sector is simply too vital.
For the moment. But that’s changing.
Rod Oram had an interesting piece in the SST this week about the relative unproductiveness of the traditional farming sector and their failure to move with the times.
I get the feeling with the increasing urbanisation fewer Kiwis have been exposed to the sector which drives our economy
What, tourism?
Trev – good post and worthwhile remembering.
IS – you need to get out more often, the death of the rural sector has been predicted by most urban commentators many times over. Truth is that it is one of the most innovative/productive sectors of the NZ economy. It generates approximately 64 percent of New Zealand’s total merchandised exports being from the agriculture, horticulture and forestry sectors. All of this export income is based on produce grown in rural areas. The rural sector is also a significant component of New Zealand’s tourism sector.
A significant component of the science (agresearch) and manufacturing sector – those dairy, forestry, clothing plants exist because of the rural sector, but provide the urban areas significant employment either as plant staff, advertisers, accountants/management etc. There is also NZ port staff that are dependent on the rural sector.
You really should visit the mystery creek fieldays sometime to understand how out of touch with reality you are.
Re Rod Oram – he misses the point that productivity for the rest of the economy fell during the same period the rural sector productivity grew.
For all of NZ we have a productivity problem, but the laggard is the urban sector not the rural sector.
Any more Idiot comments to make?
Isn’t there a balance to be had here. It can’t be rural v new age. Over time we have to shift the balance but lets also build on where we have an advantage. We especially need to move out of being commodity traders as much as is possible.
I support the balance, in fact I support improving productivity whether rural or urban full stop. But we have too many urban dwellers forgetting that the rural sector exists and then proposing actions that knee cap or creates subsidies to the urban sector. Best idea on productivity is focussing on knowledge (almost a cliche but its true) and building the workforce that remains in NZ. This to some extent is in part the rural sector and working class NZ. Affluent urban NZ is most likely to go overseas e.g. UK, note low skill NZ is also highly mobile to OZ, but there is a broad group in between that stays in NZ as well as a significant numbe of low skilled). We invest a lot of our education expenditure into the segments of NZ that end up leaving NZ and not enough is being done to lift the achievement rates in the segment that stays in NZ. Whilst some people return to NZ and greatly add to our economy, if the workforce your broadly reliant on is not being lifted by the education (knowldege) system then in aggregate you have a declining knowledge pool.
Trevor Mallard said:
I didn’t dismiss it – I questioned why it should remain the primary reason for our economy. I don’t think it should – I believe the people of NZ should be the reason for our economy.
Then there’s a simple fact – no rich country maintains agriculture as it’s primary income simply because the benefits from it aren’t that great. They always go over to technological innovation because that’s where real wealth in the form of increased productivity is. That’s why I’ve been saying for years that NZ needs a space program – the benefits of such a program reverberates across every sector in the economy including farming.
[...] Taumarunui