Kiwi Farmers Launch "Fair for Farmers" Campaign on Import Standards

A new farmer-led campaign just launched adds powerful voices to the push for closing New Zealand's animal welfare import loophole.

The Fair for Farmers campaign, led by farmers from across New Zealand's dairy, pork, beef and sheep sectors, is calling on the Government to require imports to meet the same animal welfare standards applied to domestic producers.

As part of the campaign, farmers including Waikato dairy farmer Walt Cavendish, have written open letters to the Prime Minister and party leaders, demanding an end to unfair rules that allow products from banned systems like sow stalls to flood the market. Walt spoke at Animal Policy International’s petition handover event last year and has been very outspoken on this issue. 

"We're being asked to meet strict animal welfare standards, while imports produced to standards we banned years ago flood our market," the letters state. "If it's not ok to produce in New Zealand, it's not ok to import and sell."

The Fair for Farmers campaign, which Animal Policy International helped farmers develop and launch, puts farmer voices front and centre in calling on the Government to require imports to meet domestic animal welfare standards.

With over 60% of pork now imported from countries still using sow stalls (banned in NZ since 2016), the farmers argue the problem is urgent and getting worse.

Visit the Fair for Farmers campaign at FairForFarmers.nz

Read The Post article.