Urgent action needed to restore Waikato lakes' health
Waikato is home to a diverse range of lakes, and experts say they urgently need better management and restoration.
Farmers who pollute waterways and damage New Zealand’s brand image cause problems for companies trying to sell our high value food exports.
The Minister for the Environment, David Parker, says high value products rely heavily on the NZ ‘clean and green’ image, and if would-be buyers overseas perceive this isn’t strictly true it damages the overall brand and can make it harder for exporters.
But by and large the vast majority of farmers do get the sustainability message, he says. They have done much in improving effluent control and mitigation of issues on milking platforms.
There remain problems for farmers in regions where winter grass growth is limited however, for example, where crops are grown on sloping land which leads to a lot of sediment and nutrient loss to waterways.
Parker says most farming leaders are more effectively conveying the message about sustainability.
“DairyNZ and Fonterra are showing leadership now. And regional councils that were a bit slow off the mark are now improving. But during the election someone from Federated Farmers in Wairarapa denied intensive farming was causing a problem with our rivers.
“That was a farm leader who certainly hadn’t got the message.”
Parker does not oppose dairying as such, but says it’s clear the greater loads of sediment and nutrients in waterways result from intensive farming, especially dairying, despite dairy farmers “not being bad people”.
“But the economics of dairying have changed because of the Uruguay round of the GATT that limited the quantity of subsidised dairy products that would come from developed countries into growing markets, mainly in Asia.
“That meant the greater supply to service dairy demand in Asia went to the lowest-cost producer; for a long time that was NZ.”
And there were other prompts towards intensive farming, notably new and cheaper technology for NZ land already in production; so intensification became the only alternative to increase milk production.
Parker says the politics are now gone from the environmental debate because all parties see that NZ must do better.
Alliance Group's Pure South Handpicked 55 Day Aged Beef has been recognised on the world stage, securing top honours at the World Steak Challenge in the Netherlands.
Meat co-operative, Alliance has met with a group of farmer shareholders, who oppose the sale of a controlling stake in the co-op to Irish company Dawn Meats.
Rollovers of quad bikes or ATVs towing calf milk trailers have typically prompted a Safety Alert from Safer Farms, the industry-led organisation dedicated to fostering a safer farming culture across New Zealand.
The Government has announced it has invested $8 million in lower methane dairy genetics research.
A group of Kiwi farmers are urging Alliance farmer-shareholders to vote against a deal that would see the red meat co-operative sell approximately $270 million in shares to Ireland's Dawn Meats.
In a few hundred words it's impossible to adequately describe the outstanding contribution that James Brendan Bolger made to New Zealand since he first entered politics in 1972.
OPINION: Voting is underway for Fonterra’s divestment proposal, with shareholders deciding whether or not sell its consumer brands business.
OPINION: Politicians and Wellington bureaucrats should take a leaf out of the book of Canterbury District Police Commander Superintendent Tony Hill.