Instead, the skyrocketing cost of food is driven by global forces, as we hear, compounded by bad Government policy, and red tape is constantly pushing up costs at the farm gate. According to Beef and Lamb New Zealand, on-farm price inflation from March 2021 to 2022 was more than 10 percent. This is exacerbated by excessive restrictions like national winter grazing rules that ignore regional differences and, simply, the RMA makes it more difficult for farmers to respond to higher prices by expanding facilities, and in some areas where New Zealand producers supply the vast majority of our needs and set local prices, these cost pressures may be transmitted on to the consumers in the form of higher prices.