Say nothing!
OPINION: Normally farmer good organisations are happy to use the media to get their message across to politicians and the consumers.
A scheme launched last week – ‘Sustainable dairying: water accord’ – lays out the dairy sector’s commitment to self-improvement. While not a ‘silver bullet’ to solve water quality issues in all dairying regions, the accord notably sets targets for excluding stock from waterways and wetlands.
Targets are also set for each farm to have nutrient and riparian management plans, and for farms to comply with effluent management rules in their respective regions.
The accord, headed by DairyNZ, is backed by 15 regional councils, all milk processors, fertiliser companies, Irrigation New Zealand, Federated Farmers and the Government.
DairyNZ chief executive Tim Mackle acknowledged the accord will not solve issues in all water catchments. But it will go a long way towards solving problems in most catchments, he says. “The accord addresses issues and seeks improvements that will result in good, tidy dairy farms around the country,” he told Rural News at the launch in Wellington.
Mackle says getting 15 regional councils to back the accord was crucial. “The 15 councils cover all the dairying regions. The councils will engage with the dairy sector to develop and implement programmes to meet our shared goals.”
Federated Farmers’ dairy chairperson Willy Leferink says farmers are ready to play their part. The federation’s signature on the new accord represents farmers’ commitment to do all we can to protect the water quality in our streams and rivers, says Leferink,
Farmers will also work on water quality projects at catchment and community level as regional councils set about putting policies in place over the next few years, he says. “As dairy farmers we have to lift our game on water quality. If we want to meet the aspirations we have as an industry, meet government expectations and earn the respect of the wider community, then farming sustainably is the way ahead.”
Leferink urged the news media to understand modern dairying. “Federated Farmers will make it possible for the media to get on-farm. I know the science of what we do can be hard for the media to portray, let alone when consents, policies and systems are added to the mix, but we need facts and not slogans in the public domain.”
Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy told the launch gathering there was a perception in some quarters of New Zealand media, and held by some political parties, that farmers don’t care about the environment, “that farmers are short term thinkers who care only about profit, and that farmers are the main polluters of our waterways. As a farmer myself, and as the Minister for Primary Industries, I completely refute these perceptions.
“Yes, there is a distinction between good and bad farmers. And yes, a few farmers do act in a way that is not sustainable. But there are a few ratbags in any business, across any sector. I believe most farmers are environmentalists, and want to leave the land in a better state than they found it.”
The new accord and a new dairy industry strategy to improve environmental practices on farms were launched by Prime Minister John Key.
