The New Zealand Farm Forestry Association says that recent comments from Beef + Lamb NZ (B + LNZ) and Federated Farmers are adding to alarm and hysteria around forestry. The comments come in the aftermath of a Curia poll which found 54% of Kiwis supported a limit on the amount of fossil fuel emissions that can be offset with new pine forests. “Picking selective facts from surveys they commissioned is building a narrative that suits their political purposes and deflects from the real issues,” says Graham West, president of the New Zealand Farm Forestry Association. West says that asking whether people support a limit to forestry offsets or whether there is concern around the conversion of farms to forests to meet climate change, only address part of the issue. …“The total of whole farms sold to forestry interests that year was less than 0.5% of the area in pastoral farming,” West says.