Freshwater national direction

New Zealand is particularly dependent on domestic production of fresh vegetables, given our geographic isolation and the short shelf life of certain produce (eg, leafy green vegetables).

Although nationally important, commercial vegetable growing is an intensive land use that risks discharges of sediment and nutrients to the environment. Accounting for only a small part of the country, commercial vegetable growing is typically concentrated in areas with conditions that support year-round growth. This can disproportionately contribute to nutrient loads in those catchments.

Growers have said that current rules and planning processes pose a risk to their ability to provide fresh vegetables for New Zealanders. These issues are particularly felt in areas where commercial vegetable growing is concentrated (such as Pukekohe and Horowhenua), which are significant contributors to domestic vegetable supply.

The Government wants to enable growers to grow food and rotate crops without the need to get a resource consent; it also wants New Zealanders to be able to access fresh vegetables at a reasonable price.

We are consulting on two options to enable commercial vegetable growing. These options have links to Special Agriculture Areas being consulted on under proposed amendments to the National Policy Statement for Highly Productive Land (see the Package 2: Primary sector discussion document).

We are consulting on a new objective in the NPS-FM to enable the continued domestic supply of fresh vegetables, and in doing so, to provide for crop rotation.

This would clearly signal that enabling domestic supply of fresh vegetables is a priority and that crop rotation needs to be addressed in planning, while allowing councils and communities to determine how they do that locally. More specific direction on how to provide for crop rotation could also be included, to drive consistency.

We are also consulting on developing new national standards that permit commercial vegetable growing. We are seeking feedback on how these should be progressed.

These new standards could be based on growers having certified freshwater farm plans, or they could include specific conditions to manage the environmental effects associated with commercial vegetable-growing activities. For example, these conditions could relate to cultivation, fertiliser application and discharge, and waste management.

However, it is challenging to permit commercial vegetable growing without wider reform of the resource management system. This is because doing so would:

• pre-empt the allocation of scarce resources (ie, the ability to discharge nutrients), which would impact on competing resource users and occur in the absence of an allocation framework¹⁸
• be likely to have the greatest impact in areas that are already, or are close to being, over-allocated in terms of nutrient or other discharges.

The Government is replacing the RMA with new legislation. This will provide for greater standardisation (reducing reliance on consenting) and an allocation framework that carefully manages the interests of existing users. The new resource management system may provide a better opportunity to permit commercial vegetable growing.

For further information on this topic, refer to the impact analysis document entitled Interim Regulatory Impact Statement: Commercial vegetable growing.

^{18 Under the RMA, natural resources are primarily allocated on a ‘first-in, first-served’ basis. This means councils decide consent applications in the order they receive them. When replacing consents, existing users are prioritised over new users.}