Food shortages and grocery price spikes could result if common sense on climate targets is ignored, farmers say ahead of the federal election.
NSW Farmers' Conservation & Resource Management Committee Chair Bronwyn Petrie said it was vital Australia's efforts to reduce emissions did not reduce food security.
Mrs Petrie said farmers wanted the federal government to seriously reconsider plans to slap rolls of green tape across food production, with several sustainability reforms looming ahead of the federal election.
"We need realistic, viable emissions reduction strategies, not aspirational ones that expect farmers to use electric tractors that don't exist and report on emissions we can't track," Mrs Petrie said.
"The tools we need to comply with some of these proposed emissions targets just aren't available, but soon we could be expected to not only meet these unrealistic goals, but somehow feed a growing population at the same time.
"Governments and interest groups cannot continue to demand these immediate emissions changes from agriculture when they simply can't be done, especially since they won't move the global climate equation by any significant measure."
Engaging properly with the agricultural industry to create realistic sustainability targets was essential to ensuring conservation outcomes could be achieved without a cost to productivity, Mrs Petrie said.
"Farmers are showing us firsthand the impacts that renewable energy installations are having on their ability to grow fresh, healthy food and fibre, and we simply can't let agriculture bear more unnecessary pain," Mrs Petrie said.
"Agricultural land already plays a vital role in absorbing carbon dioxide - every plant we grow literally removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere - and farmers are already making significant contributions to carbon sequestration and climate change mitigation on-farm.
"If the government doesn't listen to our farmers on the ground about what is and isn't possible, then the reality is food production will be restricted - and then food shortages and grocery price spikes could become not an exception, but the rule."
