The Enduring Land - Green Velvet

Television (Full Length Episode) – 1990

The cultivation of pastures in Aotearoa has been a long and winding road, influenced by major technological advancements and two world wars. This episode of farming documentary series The Enduring Land explains the major highs (aeroplanes, universities and feminism) and lows (rabbits, recession and soil exhaustion) of preparing the whenua for agriculture. Presenter Ruud Kleinpaste talks about intensive farming, the benefits of going organic — and how the Kiwi invention of aerial topdressing created a worldwide farming revolution. Extensive archival material helps bring this history to life.

...this intensive use of the land led to soil exhaustion in a very short time. Parts of the South Island started to resemble the dust bowls of the American Midwest. This was the first indication that the fertility of the virgin soil had its limits.
– Presenter Ruud Kleinpaste on the effects of large scale wheat farming in the late 1800s