Agust Flygenring - semsagt.net

Ný-sjálenskir bændur

"How is it you are able to farm without subsidies, when so many subsidised farmers in a country like Britain are struggling?"

That was when I became acutely conscious of the hum of the washing machine.

But seeing their nervous glances to one another as they struggled for an answer, it dawned on me that these young New Zealand farmers were not being evasive; they just could not conceptualise what having subsidies might mean.

They could talk fluently about the impact of international currency movements on their markets. But subsidies?

They did not know and they did not want to know.