About 90 anti-1080 protesters thronged the pavement outside the Federated Farmers' building in downtown Wellington in early December but they may have been chanting slogans mainly to themselves.

​ There was no media coverage at all. The group marched on Parliament waving banners calling on New Zealanders to "wake up to what's going on".

Federated Farmers is mystified as to why people are still complaining about the use of 1080, long after it's been established as a key tool in New Zealand's environmental protection system.
​
The Commissioner for the environment concluded five years ago that 1080 was the only viable tool for protection against pests on much of New Zealand's conservation land.

Nelson Marlborough
Michael Bennett Regional Advisor, Federated Farmers NZ

One of the more controversial issues that Federated Farmers deals with is the use of 1080 to control possums and other pests.

Some in New Zealand maintain that the price to be paid from using 1080 is too high, and that we should only use tools such as focused hunting and trapping programmes or traceability to control possums and other pests. Despite this, there is an accumulation of evidence that not only is there no other way to secure the livelihood of farmers and protect our bush, but also that 1080 is relatively safe to people and minimal impacts on non-target species with modern practice.