A succession of speakers at last week's Federated Farmers annual conference in Invercargill spoke about growing demand for protein and other food, driven by the increasing number of affluent people in China and India, and the soaring world population.
But New Zealand producers will not automatically benefit, as consumers in new and existing markets want proof food is safe and produced with high environmental and ethical standards.
Simply, the consumer - via the retailer - is the new regulator, Agriculture Minister David Carter said.
United States ambassador to New Zealand David Huebner said agriculture was a national security issue in the US, and consumers there wanted to know where food came from and how it was produced.
The same message was delivered by Lincoln University professor Caroline Saunders, who told farmers they had to satisfy consumer concerns, including those about climate change.
However, farming leaders have been showing some intransigence over issues such as including farm animals in the emissions trading scheme and animal traceability, viewing them as costs for something they have little control over and for which they will not receive any financial benefit.
Speakers gave little assurance that consumers would pay more for product that could be traced or that had a small carbon footprint, other than a view those products would be looked on more favorably by shoppers.
Prof Saunders said animal emissions contributed 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions, so could not be ignored.
Consumers expected producers to do their share, but farmers questioned this.
Much was made by farmers of comments by Silver Fern Farms chief executive Keith Cooper's that he had not had any formal requests from customers for disclosure over New Zealand's agricultural emissions.
He said he would supply it if asked.
But Mr Carter said retailers and governments around the world were introducing policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and he warned New Zealand ignored this trend at its peril.
Farming leaders commented privately that the ETS debate had slipped below the radar, but they continue to fight the Government over agriculture's full inclusion in the scheme in 2015.
They are similarly still reluctant to embrace the national animal identification and traceability scheme for cattle from next year and deer in 2012.
There was plenty of talk about embracing new technology, whether that was IT to help farmers run their businesses more efficiently, genetic modification or greater uptake of existing technology, such as more productive pasture species.
Speakers said while genetic modification may help reduce methane emissions in animals, consumer sensitivity meant a thorough debate was needed before it could be adopted.
There was little doubt New Zealand's economy had bounced back strongly.
Shareholders Association chairman Bruce Sheppard and Dunedin economist Rodney Jones both spoke at length about the recovery.
Mr Sheppard felt the recovery was structurally quite shallow and could be inflationary, and the huge debt consumers had run up would have to be tackled by subsequent generations.
Mr Jones said we had borrowed for a lifetime, but that our proximity to China and, in a decade's time, a booming India meant we were perfectly placed to benefit from the world's two strongest-growing economies.
He said in 10 years time India would be as important to the world as China was now.
New Zealand exports to China have increased $2.8 billion since 2008.
Labour leader and former trade minister Phil Goff told the conference the Chinese economy was doubling in size every seven years, pushing an extra 200 million people into the middle classes in the process.
He said future access to markets would come from bilateral agreements, and he believed prospects for a successful outcome from World Trade Organisation discussions looked less certain.
The growth of China and food security generated discussion about whether farmland should be sold to foreign investors.
Mr Jones said high food inflation and pressure on productive land in China and India presented New Zealand with an opportunity to use its food-producing expertise without selling land.
Mr Goff was more blunt, saying the country should not lose control of strategic assets such as land, but should balance that by allowing access to foreign investment that benefited New Zealand.
He feared the interest by Chinese-funded Natural Dairy NZ interest in Crafar family's North Island farms would force up the price of land for few other benefits.
