We have known for some time that there are serious concerns over the quality of fresh water, of our streams and rivers and lakes. Some have deteriorated alarmingly over the last few decades. Dairy farm intensification has been a major factor.
Our ‘clean green’ image has been challenged.
The last National Government tried to address fresh water quality, but it is difficult to make changes for the better quickly.
Dairy farmers and Fonterra have also been making efforts to clean up their operations.
November 2017: Fonterra launches plan to improve waterways
Fonterra today launched an ambitious plan to help improve the quality of New Zealand’s waterways. Based around six strategic commitments, the plan will underpin Fonterra’s efforts to promote healthy streams and rivers, including a strong focus on sustainable farming and manufacturing.
Fonterra’s six water commitments are as follows:
- Farm within regional environmental limits
- Encourage strong environmental farming practices
- Reduce water use and improve wastewater quality at manufacturing plants
- Build partnerships to improve waterway health
- Invest in science and innovation to find new solutions
- Make the products people value most
Each of Fonterra’s commitments is underpinned by a set of clear actions. These range from supporting regional councils to set environmental limits for water use, investing $250 million to drive a 20 percent reduction in water use across its 26 manufacturing sites and almost doubling the Co-operatives network of Sustainable Dairy Advisors.
Mike Joy was interviewed on Newshub Nation this weekend.
Ecologist Mike Joy says it’s still unknown whether the government’s National Policy Statement on freshwater management will make a difference.
“I’ve had my heart broken too many times by politicians to be caught up in the excitement. I’m doing everything I can to support and to provide science and to be part of panels and I hope that they’re brave enough to make the kind of decisions that need to be made.”
He says agricultural intensification is a big part of what he describes as a ‘freshwater crisis’. “We need to face the fact that we have way too many cows in this country, for a start, and that’s a big part of our problem”.
He says reducing the amount of cows on farms will not reduce profit. “In a biological system like a farm, it gets to a point where you plateau; you have no gain…By reducing 20 per cent of the cows off most of the farms in New Zealand, it would actually make the farmer more money.”
Can you farm with less cows, be good for the environment and yet make a profit? Can you do both?
Yes, definitely you can. And what it’s about is diversity. At the moment, we’ve got monocultures; we’ve got industrial farming. And all over the world, we can show that you gain nothing from that. You employ less people. You have less people on the land. You pollute more. At the moment, we’re making milk out of fossil fuels, where the nitrate fertiliser that’s causing all of the problems in our rivers comes from fossil fuels – a third from Taranaki and two thirds from the Middle East.
So it’s completely unsustainable, what we’re doing. So the landscapes that will look like— And Chris Perley wrote about it, and some of the other authors in the book as well – it’ll be a much more diverse landscape. Within farms, there’ll be bees and trees and nuts and vegetables – getting into much more of a permaculture or a farm-forest.
So the landscape in New Zealand as we know – the rolling farms – it’s going to have to change. If we don’t do it, what’s the risk of getting it wrong?
If we don’t do it, we’ve already gone wrong. And the biggest value-add we have, the most important thing for our exports is our clean, green image. It’s way and above any technological things we can do. That’s the most valuable thing to us, and we’re imperilling that at the moment. We’re lucky, because people still believe we’re clean and green, even though we aren’t. And so we need to get back to being clean and green before we get caught out.
Full transcript at Scoop.
