Notes

Question 1

Kiwifruit Overview

Answer 1

• Almost all kiwifruit in NZ are handpicked
• 80% of pickers are seasonal workers
• Sales of kiwifruit in China are worth $457 million and sales of kiwifruit in the EU are worth $511 million
• 1999 Kiwifruit Industry Restructuring Act and the 1999 Kiwifruit Export Regulations established Zespri as a co-operative and gave it its exclusivity
• 2018 defended their copyright by taking Haoyu Gao and his company Smiling Face LTD to high court for propagating their crop in China

Question 2

Cow Overview (Dairy)

Answer 2

• Most industrial milking (69%) is done on Herringbone Machines, which still require farm hands to milk
• Milk is pasteurised before being split into powdered and liquid milk
• Powdered milk is made when pasteurised milk is concentrated into solids before being evaporated; exports to China were worth almost $5 billion
• Fonterra is the world’s largest co-operative dairy company responsible for approximately 30% of the world’s dairy exports with revenue exceeding $17.2 billion in Fonterra’s annual reports in 2016

Question 3

Cow Overview (Beef)

Answer 3

• Since 2000 the number of beef calves have decreased by 14% while the number of dairy ones have increased by 41%
• 71% of New Zealand’s beef cattle are in the North Island with 34% in the Auckland region
• Methods recognised as appropriate for the euthanasia of cattle by the Ministry of Primary Industries are:
  1. Barbiturates (“Acceptable”)
  2. Gunshot and penetrating captive bolt (“Acceptable with Conditions”)
  Barbiturates are most commonly used in NZ

Question 4

Sustainable Production Systems Overview

Answer 4

A sustainable production system is one where the use, development and protection of natural and physical resources are managed from production to the consumer, in a manner that at least enables people and communities to provide for their social, economic, and cultural well-being, and for their health and safety. This will be done while sustaining the potential of natural and physical resources to meet the reasonably foreseeable future; safeguarding the life-supporting capacity of air, water, soil, and ecosystems; and avoiding, remedying or mitigating any adverse effects of activities on the environment.

Question 5

Taha Whanau (Social Well-being) Overview

Answer 5

This pillar of Hauora (Maori philosophy surrounding health and well-being) is concerned with the relationships between you and everyone else in your life, not just immediate family and close friends, but also your community and colleagues.

Question 6

Taha Whanau (Cows)

Answer 6

• The average dairy farm in New Zealand employs 4.8 extra people as the average number of cows on a farm is 435; this keeps people in their local communities by providing employment thus making it so that people don’t have to urbanise or travel out of local areas to find jobs, sustaining local populations and maintaining social bonds that have existed for decades
• However this may not be socially sustainable due to the demanding nature of these farms; first milking begins at 5am, and second milking finishes after 6pm with most expected to work six days a week. This employment undoubtedly causes mental health issues, with about 1 in 3 farmers admitting to it as it breaks down traditional time with families and other members of the community. It can be mitigated by being family run so that social bonds are maintained and long hours can be managed by workers having separate shifts
• Mechanisation of farm work with the introduction of Automatic Milking Systems (AMS) and the like also pose a problem as it can lead to less work opportunities and subsequent issues. Although farmers can mitigate the effect of people losing jobs by bringing more money into local communities with the more efficient production system and allowing for employment in different locations and parts of the production chain
• Overall there is little proactive action on maintaining social sustainability

Question 7

Taha Whanau (Kiwifruit)

Answer 7

• The Zespri centralised business model in New Zealand allows bonds between different organisations and stakeholders to be maintained
• An issue with social sustainability is the use of seasonal workers for picking who are unable to contribute to the long term social climate of an area as they are around for only 3 months in a year (about 20,000 come every year)
• Current unemployment is 3.4% so these workers are not ‘stealing’ jobs
• Seasonal workers do benefit the long term sustainability of an area socially as they bring new ideas, different manners of doing things to rural communities which allows them to improve their processes, ad create a strong sense of community for those farmers in those 3 months, who would struggle without them (returning workers)
• Although the pickers do work six long hours each day and often live on site, and so may not interact with the community that much

Question 8

Taha Wairua (Cultural Well-being) Overview

Answer 8

Ministry of Culture defines cultural well-being as:
The vitality that communities and individuals enjoy through: participation in recreation, creative and cultural activities; and the freedom to retain, interpret and express their arts, history, heritage and traditions.
As with social well-being, the issue for farmers is that they lack the time to participate in such activities

Question 9

Taha Wairua (Cows)

Answer 9

• Fonterra has its own set of guidelines called Haea te Ata which is its strategy to incorporate Maori views into its business structure
• Specifically the views of Manaakitanga (respect for people), Kaitiakitanga (respect for the environment), and Whanaungatanga (respect for the bonds between people). The company is making an effort to reconcile the debt it owes to the Tangata Whenua
• The average Maori-owned farm is four times larger and 1.3 times more productive than its counterparts. This is possibly due to economies of scale but these farms usually pay more attention to communal responsibilities and have a larger focus on Tuakiri (Pride) so following culturally sustainable practises also leads to more profit. Being Maori-owned also means farming traditions are passed down.
• 1 in 6 iwi representatives are in agriculture, reflecting a commitment and desire by Maori to be involved in the decision making surrounding this.
• Dairy farmers are making conscious efforts to include indigenous thinking into their business models and farms.

Question 10

Taha Wairua (Kiwifruit)

Answer 10

• The kiwifruit industry is very centralised, with 81% of farms in the Bay of Plenty region, which also has the highest concentration of different Iwi groups, around 35.
• Each individual Zespri farm must sign a commitment to maintain the interests of the local iwi, although there is little to no accountability.
• Due to their proximity, iwi do own many kiwifruit orchards, with Te Tumu purchasing 90 hectares to use and protect for future Maori growers, again promoting local traditions, and safeguarding cultural practices for future people

Question 11

Environmental Sustainability (Cows - Air)

Answer 11

• NZ produced 79 million tonnes of methane in 2018. The UN says it is about 34 times worse than CO2
• 97% of methane production comes from enteric fermentation, a natural process in rumination animals, like cows, that cannot be prevented
• It can be decreased with practices and for every year since 2017 the total methane production has decreased consistently by just over 1%, while the number of cows has actually increased
• One such practice is changing portions of feed to forage beet which decrease overall emissions in dry conditions, such as the Canterbury Plains, by 10%
• Swapping to once a day milking also helps as it decreases the overall rumination needed to produce milk, just the total volume of milk at each milking is increased

Question 12

Environmental Sustainability (Cows - Soil)

Answer 12

• In more porous soil, the waste of cattle leaches into the soil, causing high nitrogen levels which can make its way into groundwater, causing the eutrophication of waterways
• Cattle also cause erosion to the landscape
• To fix overall nitrogen wasting, different fertilisers are used with lower nitrogen content, leading to the grass and clover fixating more of the nitrogen in the air. There is also genetic research on whether some animals excrete more nitrogen in their waste, and whether this could be spread to other animals
• Fonterra has partnered with Nestle to ensure that they jointly fund efforts to replenish water and soil
• Fund research by Plant and Food New Zealand also aims to decrease the overall amounts of leaching that occur

Question 13

Environmental Sustainability (Cows - Ecosystems)

Answer 13

• Leaching into waterways destroys marine ecosystems in rivers as well as polluting the ocean
• Intensive farming promotes monocultures with low diversity. These can be remedied by different breeds of cows and different plants like Plantain and clovers
• Farmers can also destroy native land and bush in an effort to make way for more space for cattle, destroying the habitats of many native and endangered plants and animals
• Some farmers have started programmes to replenish native land however this is very costly and so farmers are at the moment calling on the government for assistance in this matter

Question 14

Environmental Sustainability (Kiwifruit - Air)

Answer 14

• Most of the carbon footprint of the kiwifruit supply chain is from the international export of it (44%). For every 1Kg of Kiwifruit, around 2Kg of CO2 is produced in transit.
• The shift from petrol and diesel vehicles to electric is decreasing the overall pollution. The government’s subsidy on Electric Vehicles and tax on oil vehicles is helping this transition. Electric Trucks are becoming more used, with 1200 funded last week, fuelled partially by hydrogen batteries.
• There is also a focus on supplying closer consumers first. Kiwifruit are already produced in California and Italy and NZ sells to Europe and the US because it is profitable. But a new environmentally conscious approach is leading to an overall increase in total volume being sent to closer countries like Australia and China

Question 15

Environmental Sustainability (Kiwifruit - Soil)

Answer 15

• Leaching of phosphorus and nitrogen can wash off the plants and into the groundwater.
• This can be managed simply by using less nitrogen in fertilisers and having soil that is less porous, less sand based. Having less uncovered land also decreases leaching.
• Kiwifruit may also drain the soil of nutrients after many crop cycles so that nothing may grow there, thus cycling of plants and changing of fertilisers allows for the land to be preserved for use for many years

Question 16

Environmental Sustainability (Kiwifruit - Ecosystems)

Answer 16

• Bactericides and insecticides are the main problem. Many growers still use copper to protect against disease for their crops. Marine mammals are at risk of copper poisoning and when leaching occurs, high concentrations of copper can build up in waterways and poison the wildlife. New NZ laws limit the amount of copper that can be applied at once, and how often it may be applied, with fines totalling $10,000 if ignored.
• Following concerns on the health impacts on local ecosystems, and even build up in humans, Zespri kiwifuit are all organic, without the use of insecticides. This does lead to lower production, but consumers are generally willing to pay higher prices due to the organic quality

Question 17

Cows and Covid

Answer 17

• Most workers are not seasonal so initially the overall demand increased and milk prices looked strong. The sector was quite resilient against international issues, growing by $330 million over the year 2020, NZ’s greatest export that year.
• The centralised model of NZ farming also meant products did not have the difficulty of crossing domestic borders.
• However other countries started to subsidise their own milk products, so farmers began making less overall revenue from exports. Less new machinery was also able to be imported as less was being made overall due to the worldwide disruption of supply chains.
• The price of milk dropped by 14% this year from $7.30 to $6.30. As farmers did not alter their pre-pandemic practices, in the long-term NZ farmers were not as resilient as international farmers who were forced to adapt
• There were also drought conditions across NZ in 2020 which increased the cost of feed for the animals and decreased the volume of water available to use, leading to less milk production overall.
• However, this is a yearly standard for NZ farmers and they deal with it by swapping to once a day milking, and using supplements for the cows to get them enough nutrients.
• The government put substantial investment into maintaining dairy industries, comprising $1.1 billion across 2021 to fund at least 11,000 farmers and their employees.
• The risk of this economic borrowing is weighed against the possibility of an overall increase in profit for the industry (projected growth of $1 billion over the next 4 years) which would refund this investment and more
• The high turnover rate of about 11% leaving the dairy farming industry each year has meant that DairyNZ has provided more support for maintaining farmers and the Ministry of Primary Industries has allocated $11 million to be used for marketing to those who have lost their jobs to reskill and move onto dairy farms, a job which seems more stable in the current volatile economic climate
• Study from the MPI also found that the more successful bovine farms during the pandemic have diversified into both dairy and beef cows and have even started reusing the leather from cows again, despite the low prices. So overall they increased profits by 21% in order to survive and remain operational.

Question 18

Kiwifruit and Covid

Answer 18

• As the lockdown was in March, this cut off seasonal and migrant workers form entering the country for the picking season from April-June. The inflexible approach to hiring that year meant that the industry did not capitalise when unemployment hit 5% and so large volumes of kiwifruit were unpicked
• The introduction of MIQ meant that in 2021 the industry could employ whoever they could, from university students to recently unemployed and it led to the most profitable season to date, with a production of 140% that of pre-covid numbers to $6.6 billion
• Global demand during the pandemic has also shifted towards more healthy food thus prices have also increased. Growers also realised they could start selling to Vitamin C supplement companies as demand for them as the complementary good increased as well.
• Zespri farmers also diversified the countries they exported to, and introduced new varieties of kiwifruit, like the Red Kiwifruit, a point of difference that allowed them to not be too adversely affected by problems in one particular location.
• There is less overall support for the horticultural industry, just $350,000. But the reservation of spots in managed quarantine for season workers was not afforded to any other primary industry and this no doubt allowed for the record 2021 picking production
• As with the dairy industry, the centralisation of the kiwifruit packing stations and storehouses meant that production part of the chain was not disrupted at all by borders. The centralised location of most growers also allowed for effective inter-farm coordination and support, mentally and physically.