7.3 Living standards, power relationships and structures
Living standards, power relationships and structures - impact hugely on the ability of farmers and farm families to think, plan, shape their future, and on their endeavours to ensure a sustainable future.
Changing living standards: It was found that the farm families we interviewed in this area have a good basic living standard, though many have tightened their belts in terms of spending on food extras, clothing and ‘luxury’ items. Some suggest they do not renew their car as frequently "we all know how many bales of wool it used to take to buy a car and how many it takes now" but none of the families we saw are living in poverty.
But living standards studies have another aspect central to their purpose.
"…an individual’s level of living is defined not so much by the economic goods he or she possesses, but by the ability of the individual to exercise choice and to affect the course of his or her own life... level-of-living studies are concerned with human capabilities and how such capabilities are used. They try to examine the degree to which people can participate in social, political, and economic decision-making and can work creatively and productively to shape their own futures."
Heiburg and Ovensen 1994:13
In this sense it can be argued that the living standards of farm families in the mid-Rangitikei have dropped, significantly. Few would describe themselves as being able to work creatively and productively to shape their own future, and many commented on their sense of restricted choice. Land value changes have badly affected some farmers. They talked of the bank being in control. Rapid change and withdrawal of rural services have also had a marked effect. Many attributed some blame to government at both the local and national level, for their inability to improve the situation, but mostly for their lack of interest. This has significant implications for farm family sustainability.
"It would be bloody marvellous to live on a farm if you didn’t have to make a living out of it." This quote caught the mood of many farmers in the Rangitikei, and is indicative of the effect of artificial expectation raising through past subsidies. Though living standards are stable, many of these farm families feel relatively powerless.
Older farmers consider they cannot sell their farm to their sons, or, in rare instances, daughters, for they do not want to put a noose round their necks. At the same time they want to realise the money they need to establish themselves in retirement elsewhere. Middle-aged and younger farmers are suffering because they are servicing debts out of proportion and ratio to land values and income. If they walk they may lose everything. If they sell they may come out with less than they went in with, yet if they stay they are likely to see "more money going down the bottomless pit". However, even for these families, their material living standards would still be described as good, on most criteria, including their own.
Changing power relationships: power relationships were defined as relationships between people which involve influence, decision making, choice; and these are changing. Money may be handled by him, by her, by both. Women are gaining more equality, partly through working off farm and gaining a ‘separate’ identity, regardless of what happens to the money (this is happening in the wider arena, and it was simply a matter of time before the impact started to work itself out inrural male/female situations).
Relationships between couples, between parents and their children in farm families, between farm families and advisors, farmer organisations, and local and national government are all changing. Changes the government introduced are responsible for many, but not all of these changing relationships, and the changes that were implemented have had a strong impact, and a continuing ripple effect. Many people are confused. One of the major impacts of the withdrawal of government from the agricultural community sector is that it has left a support vacuum - and many farm families are left wondering, wandering, suspended, in this vacuum.
Changing structures: The main structural changes are in the provisioning of rural services such as health, banking and education; and in the availability of volunteers – those ‘invisible’ but essential key people who connect others, who ‘glue’ a community together. The community context, absent from many analyses and interventions in farming, has shown significant change.
The research indicates that succession arrangements will change significantly also, which in turn could influence family farm sustainability.
There has been strong debate about the withdrawal of services and amenities from rural communities, and efforts made to introduce new models of community development and crime prevention. These efforts have had limited success, it seems, in this area, in terms of job schemes or community coordination. For example, efforts to get a one-stop shop for adolescents off the ground are wavering. Lack of support for the introduction of the new structural models is contributing to problems with sustainability.
Contact for Enquiries
Rural Affairs Coordinator
Sector Performance Policy
MAF Policy
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
PO Box 2526
Wellington
NEW ZEALAND
Phone: +64 4 894 0675
Fax: +64 4 4 894 0745
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