This news report caught me by surprise. John Key fronted up to the Federated Farmers annual conference, explained the rationale for the ETS and
was greeted politely and raised barely a ripple of anger. He was farewelled from the meeting with a standing ovation.
As a regular Straight Furrow reader, this surprised me. Every week I read bleating & mooing from farmers about the ETS. And the Feds have until very recently been actively stoking these fires, along with ACT.
So how to read the warm reception for the PM that is visiting all this evil upon their homes, livelihoods and country? Did the Feds have no counter-arguments? Were they too polite to voice them? Or are they just resigned to the new reality?
Whatever. I support the ETS for agriculture. I hope the Feds get over themselves and focus on making NZ’s agriculture more sustainable. I especially hope the ETS helps us get the whole fertiliser/soil carbon nexus working properly and kick/manage our urea addiction.