This paper considers productivist/post-productivist conceptualisations of agriculture in the light of changing New Zealand attitudes toward protection of indigenous vegetation and wildlife. It will show how the attitude of farmers toward native habitat and wildlife mirror changes in the wider New Zealand society. It will suggest that post-productivist elements vary from one part of the world to another, and thereby reflect not so much change within agriculture, or even change within rural society, but changing relationships between the wider society (of which agriculture is always a part), and the environment.