The Conference winds up...

Our Nuffield Conference concluded with a vistit to a cropping farm at Luton where they have diversified their business by converting their old stables into a business park.  A number of offices have been established with tenants renting office space.  This was possible because the location is relatively close to London and there is a ready demand for office space in a country setting.

We also had a farm walk and discussed GAP reforms, farm subsidies and their impact in the operation of a farm business.  We discussed the principals behind the GAP reforms through enhanced biodiversity and environmental requirements on farm business.The payment is somewhere to the order of $200 NZD per acre.

I found it interesting as there is increasing expectations on NZ farmers and some of the societal expectations are growing toward where the UK currently is.  It seems a relatively simple argeument that farmers are 'compensated' by the tax payer for the extra expectations and inconvenience to their business brought on by society.  This is achieved through a process called the Single Farm Payment.  An issue for the future facing NZ farmers could be that the expections of the general public seem to be growing toward those in the UK, but I cannot possibly imagine the NZ public developing an apetite for 'compensating' farmers for the impact of these practices on the farm business.

There is a middle ground here where we, as farmers, need to be more aware and proactive about the whole impact of our business (ecomomic, social and environmental) and society needs to recognise that placing expectations (aesetic, social etc) on a business can bring a cost which needs to be met someway. If it is a societal expectation then surely it is a societal cost. Interesting...