Global vs Local
The trading conditions in which our farms and orchards operate have, and are, experiencing profound and fundamental change, largely driven by the demands of individual consumers.
The emerging agriculture is more than marginally changed from traditional agriculture. Fundamental to these changes is a paradigm shift from production driven to market driven agriculture, with less government intervention. Consequently, agriculture is globalising andinternationalising as the value chain becomes dominated by a smaller number of large trans-national companies. These companies are competing to increase efficiency and profitability through vertical integration and partnering, economies of scale, market power, and rapid introduction of technology - particularly in plant and animal genetics, precision farming and information management (adapted from Napier, 1996). That
these actions are primarily in response to financial sustainability raises questions as to how well the issues of (domestic) environmental and social sustainability will be addressed.
Overall, these factors are combining to reduce the competitiveness of traditional family farms. Already some commentators are predicting that within ten years, corporate farmers will be the main players on the New Zealand agricultural scene and current "family farms" will become "part time lifestyle farms", requiring significant off-farm income (Ritchie, 1996). However, families will continue to be involved in farming - but not in the traditional way of "bona fide farming".
Gannon (1994) believes that in order to cope with such changes in the rural sector, people will need new skills, knowledge, interest and determination. They will need mechanisms to cope with change gained through continuous learning and involvement in participatory processes. Communities will also need strong leadership and co-operation in order to take ownership of problems and opportunities and develop innovative and robust responses - often in "non-traditional" ways.
Increasingly, therefore, New Zealand farmers, and other rural dwellers, will need to respond not only to local issues, but also to international drivers and developments. There are already signs of the tensions this can create - particularly as large international customers impose quality requirements on New Zealand farming. There are both international and domestic indications are that corporate farming objectives are not always consistent with local environmental requirements and societal concerns.
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