Big spending farmers are fleeing New Zealand to invest in countries where there are no anti-farmer feelings.
Farming dollars, mainly from the dairy industry, are being spent in North and South America, Australia and even Africa.
Departing Federated Farmers chairman Charlie Pedersen said New Zealand was losing intellectual and financial capital because land regulations and anti-farmer grizzling was stacking up against food producers.
He said the "smart money" was moving to South America, but it was less publicly known that Kiwi investment was being made in North America."Food producers are on the brink of feeling unloved and unwanted in this country and experiences of the cruelty of the RMA ... will soon convince many other farmers that the future for their food production business is not in New Zealand," he told farming leaders yesterday in his final speech as chairman at the federations' national conference in Christchurch.