AgForestry Leaders Travel to New Zealand

In February alumni of the Washington AgForestry Leadership program spent two weeks touring New Zealand seeing the sights and learning more about forestry and agriculture in New Zealand. One of the tour guides, Mary Webb shares that one of the difference between our country and New Zealand’s agriculture is that the Kiwis have no ag subsidies and haven’t since the 80s.
Webb: “One of our farmers said, ‘How did you manage? Was there an appetite? What happened when the subsidies were taken away?’ And they were taken away in the late-80s just over night. Subsidies had only been introduced 10 years before — so it wasn’t a big change for them. It is really an interesting model. New Zealand is very interesting how they do their agriculture and how they make it pay. They are very hard-nose about their business. It has to make a living — there is no government to pick up the pieces. They go bankrupt if they can’t make a living from their farm.”
One thing that our region’s farmers had in common with their New Zealand counter parts is that agriculture has shifted to the less populated areas of the country as Webb explains
Webb: “Well a lot of the farmers are what we would call Century Farmers but they are not necessarily in the same area. A lot of the dairies have moved to the South Island. With the growth in the population in the North Island — most of the population of New Zealand is around Auckland area. Like it is in Washington around the Seattle area in the Puget Sound. So that has pushed the farmers to the South Island. Even though their fathers and grandfathers were in farming — they are just in a different location.”