The price of milk: primitive accumulation and the New Zealand dairy industry 1814-2014

Abstract

The first consignment of dairy cattle was brought to New Zealand by Samuel Marsden in 1814. Two centuries later, the dairy industry is New Zealand’s single largest source of export revenue. New Zealand, which exports to more than 150 countries across the globe, is the world’s largest exporter of dairy produce accounting for approximately one third of all cross-border dairy trade. In economic terms, the development of the New Zealand dairy industry has been a remarkable success. This success has, however, been underpinned at crucial stages by often violent acts of dispossession. This thesis provides a comprehensive historical account of the growth and development of the dairy industry in New Zealand from 1814 until the present day. It seeks to highlight not only the successes of the industry in bringing prosperity to the country but also the enormous social and environmental costs and consequences of the industry both within New Zealand and abroad. This thesis does this in part by making use of Marx’s theory of primitive accumulation in order to add a crucial, and until now overlooked, critical dimension to the history of the New Zealand dairy industry. This study begins by recounting the alienation of Māori land in the mid and late nineteenth century which established the preconditions necessary for the initial growth of the industry from the 1880s onwards. It chronicles the dispossession of Nauruan phosphate and the destruction of the Nauruan interior which provided for the steady expansion of the industry throughout the mid-twentieth century. This thesis also highlights the dispossession and degradation of New Zealand’s freshwater resources which has underpinned the current dairy boom with catastrophic consequences for the country’s environmental integrity and endemic biodiversity.