The Green Party will support the agricultural sector through a just transition to reduce its emissions, minimise harmful inputs and practices, regenerate rural land and water, and build resilience. We will work to restore opportunity and vibrancy outside major cities, and foster better linkages and relationships between urban and rural centres.
Vision
A resilient and diverse agricultural sector contributes to thriving ecosystems, people and rural communities.
Values and Principles
- Honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi: Tangata whenua ancestral land ownership, including its return, tino rangatiratanga, through Matike Mai, and kaitiakitanga must be upheld and honoured.
- Ecological Wisdom: Agricultural practices should regenerate our soils, water and biodiversity and lock away carbon, caring for its foundations.
- Social Responsibility: Everyone, including future generations, should have secure access to sufficient food and fibre that is produced locally and traded fairly.
- Appropriate Decision-Making: Mātauranga Māori, as well as local knowledge, should be combined with recognised best practice to guide agricultural activities.
- Non-Violence: Agricultural practices should avoid harm, including harm to farmed animals, native ecosystems, and harm caused by novel and introduced species.
- Value: Agricultural practices should focus on quality, recognising the value of sustainably produced agricultural products, and should avoid damaging intensification.
- Rural livelihoods: Farming systems should help support a decent quality of life for all rural people who live and work on and around them.
Strategic Priorities
The Green Party’s strategic goals include:
“...regenerative practices in all areas of economic activity, including land use and food production, will predominate.”
Actions in this policy that will help achieve this include:
- Uphold and return ancestral land ownership and kaitiakitanga responsibilities in rural areas to the hāpu of the rohe. (1.2)
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Regulate agricultural production in Aotearoa New Zealand to:
- significantly reduce livestock numbers;
- reduce the proportion of land used for livestock, based on requirements that are informed by soil types, regional climatic conditions and river catchment;
- phase out synthetic nitrogen fertilisers; and
- ensure that Aotearoa New Zealand honours its commitment to the International Methane Pledge. (2.1)
- Phase out palm kernel expeller (PKE) and other imported animal feeds. (3.2)
- Incorporate soil carbon, the health of biological soil systems and soil water within climate change response frameworks, acknowledging their vital role, in conjunction with plant life, in sequestering carbon in the soil and cooling the area. (2.16)
- Assist farmers to transition to regenerative farming, including through on-farm regenerative organic advisory services, financial tools to assist with the upfront cost of transition, funding for regenerative primary industry bodies, and support for certification. (4.3)
Connected Policies
Please see the Green Party's Environmental Protection, Housing and Sustainable Communities, Food, Climate Change, and Trade policies for other relevant information. Our Animal Welfare Policy outlines how animals living in primary production facilities should be treated humanely and with respect throughout their lives, their sentience meaningfully acknowledged. Biosecurity is addressed in detail in our Conservation Policy.
