Most of my time in England was spent in rural Norfolk, apart from a trip to the north of England to see Hadrian’s Wall. I was struck by the attractiveness of the countryside, with hedgerows, many woodlands and very well keep pasture. It seemed to me that there was far higher level of awareness of, and care for, the needs of wildlife, the land and farm animals. Free range pig farms, some very large, were common.
Keeping to a porcine theme, I felt that New Zealand is trying to make a silk purse of a sow’s ear and, unless things change fast, this 100% pure branding is going to make bigger fools of us than has already happened under Key’s watch. The next government needs to have the environment front and centre of all its policies.
4 comments:
Having also travelled the length and breadth of England and Wales I couldn't agree more. The landscape is beautiful and while property owners are the part time guardians of the land the communities have a much larger input than in NZ. It is not unreasonable, it just places expectations on the land owners to consider the place they live in and work to be part of that. England has places like the Cotswolds where they have a landscape which is amazing and you cant just knock down trees and plough paddocks without considering the effect on the landscape. In NZ we have a much younger landscape but no one has yet worked out what we should be encouraging or discouraging as we have no vision of what it should look like. That needs addressed and in the south would be a great place to start
I have ' worked out what we should be encouraging or discouraging" and I have a 'vision of what it should look like.'
Wanna make plans, Philip?
The south is the best place to start. In fact, we've already begun...
I am sorry to undervalue what you have done. I know you and some other visionaries have done great things, what I was pointing to is communities by way of councils having a bigger vision encompassing the views of all the residents which those who are the temporary guardians of the land have clear understandings of the community expectations. That vision should not be dictated but pushed by getting people to buy into it. Perhaps councils subsidise nurseries which are low input cost wise apart from the labour cost. Yes you have started the snowball going and we need it to gain momentum. The old leadership argument again isn't it
No, no, I didn't mean that, philip. I really appreciate your observations.
I firmly believe that our leaders are amongst us, at the 'community' level and are now moving to secure the 'environment' many of us yearn for. You are one of those. The council, remember, is a distillation. They are us, though they can become distant if we don't keep calling on them.
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