Abstract
International environmental influences are becoming increasingly important to farm management decisions on New Zealand farms. New Zealand has been active in meeting international commitments in issues such as the UNCED Biodiversity Convention, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the Montreal Protocol on Ozone Depletion. New Zealand now needs to focus on the impacts of agriculture on the environment. This paper backgrounds recent policy developments in New Zealand leading up to the release of a Ministry or Agriculture and Fisheries position paper on sustainable agriculture. The position paper defines sustainable agriculture as having environmental, economic, social and market dimensions. MAF believes that new approaches will be needed to encourage farmers to adopt more sustainable farming systems. There are market opportunities presented by providing customers with assurances of the environmental quality of our products and the processes by which they are produced. There are also issues of resource degradation that must be addressed through standards under the Resource Management Act. The influence of these changes on farming practices in New Zealand is reviewed in this paper. Issues confronting farming systems researchers and animal production scientists wishing to contribute to sustainable agriculture in New Zealand are identified.
Proceedings of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production, Volume 54, , 369-372, 1994
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