The Future of Indoor Pig Farming
Posted: 29 July 2024
Concern has been expressed by industry body, New Zealand Pork (NZP), that the National Policy Statement for Highly Productive Land (NPS-HPL) is threatening the future viability of indoor pig farms. It believes the NPS-HPL is preventing current indoor farms from increasing in size and is blocking new indoor farms from being established on productive land.
Concerns that policy is threatening indoor pig farming
So what is the NPS-HPL, how does it affect current and future indoor pig farms, and what (if anything) is projected to change in the future?
The NPS-HPL was introduced on 17 October 2022. It was designed to protect productive land from encroaching urbanisation, such as housing, by restricting infrastructure development.
The NPS-HPL introduced a regime requiring regional councils to identify, map and protect land defined as ‘highly productive’ for use in ‘land-based primary production.’ Such identification relies on the Land Use Capability (LUC) system, which categorises land into eight classes of productivity. Land classified as LUC 1 is the most versatile and productive, and has the fewest limitations which makes it best suited for food and fibre production. LUC 8 is the least versatile and productive, and has the greatest number of limitations. LUC classes 1, 2 and 3 are protected by the NPS-HPL as ‘highly productive’ land.
Initial consultation on the proposed NPS-HPL suggested that the intention was to protect highly productive land for ‘primary production’ purposes. This was supported by NZP, but the published version of the NPS-HPL changed the wording from ‘primary production’ to ‘land-based [our emphasis] primary production’.
‘Land-based primary production’ is defined under section 1.3(1) of the NPS-HPL as, “production, from agricultural, pastoral, horticultural, or forestry activities, that is reliant on the soil resource of the land [our emphasis].”
Implications for indoor pig farming
NZP is concerned that while indoor pig farming is an intensive primary production activity that requires access to arable land, indoor pig farming is being interpreted by the Ministry for the Environment (MoE) and regional councils as being an ‘inappropriate land use’ under the NPS-HPL due to it not directly relying on the soil resource of the land. NZP states, “This interpretation of the policy will make it hard for new pig farms to be established and for existing farms to grow or change the way they do things.”
Farmers have expressed concern that there are no clear consenting pathways for building new, sector-specific infrastructure on highly productive land, nor are there pathways for the development of structures used for intensive indoor primary production and greenhouses.
Adding to that concern is that current indoor pig farmers may have to double their building footprints to comply with code of welfare changes. One pork farmer stated that two-thirds of commercial pig farms in New Zealand are situated on land classified as ‘highly productive’ under the NPS-HPL. The National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee has proposed changes to the code for pigs, including increasing the amount of space where young pigs live.
As such, NZP has identified that it could be difficult for pig farmers to construct new buildings on productive land to meet any new welfare rules. The pork farmer indicated that his business would need to build another five new indoor sheds to meet the welfare code changes.
The future
NZP has asked the government to change the NPS-HPL to make sure it protects good farming while still allowing for indoor pig farming.
The MoE and the Ministry for Primary Industries have consulted stakeholders about amendments to the NPS-HPL that would provide more clarity around what can be built on highly productive land. Consultation closed in October 2023, and ministers are due to seek Cabinet approvals to changes later this year. It is unclear exactly what changes are being proposed.
On 4 July 2024, however, Minister of Housing Chris Bishop unveiled six changes the government plans to boost housing growth. The minister said the changes would free up land for development, remove unnecessary planning barriers and “ensure abundant development opportunities in our key urban areas” by making it easier to build new houses. These proposed changes seem to contradict the NPS-HPL, but may well resolve the issues that indoor pig farmers face under it.
We will keep you informed of how the proposed changes progress.
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