'Wrong to blame just farming'

"The work of the Land & Water Forum (LAWF) means all communities need to look at their environmental impacts," says Bruce Wills, Federated Farmers president.

"We know and accept farming has an environmental impact but it's misleading to highlight farming or one part of farming as the sole cause for everything bad about the environment.

"It's why we are committed to LAWF but we need all parts of the community to play their part too. While we accept our impacts, it is no secret many urban wastewater systems are desperately in need of an upgrade.

"And while there are 2.7 million additional dairy cattle, they come from a farm system undergoing transformation.

"The national sheep flock best highlights what I mean. In June 2011 there were 21 million fewer sheep than at the same time in 1992. It's a similar picture with beef cattle, the national herd having fallen 830,000 over the past 20 years.

"Despite all of this agriculture has lost more farmland to urban encroachment than we've gained.

"Work by Landcare Research found the number of less productive lifestyle blocks have gone from 100,000 to 175,000 over the past 13 years. The land area lost represents some 873,000 hectares or roughly half of all current dairy land in New Zealand.

"What also gets forgotten is the outstanding job New Zealand agriculture continues to do cutting greenhouse emissions in every unit of production.

"As the former Labour Cabinet Minster David Caygill discovered only last year, agriculture has for 20 years been cutting emissions by an average 1.3% each year.

"This is why it is wrong to lump all the blame onto farming and one part of the farm system.

"It's why we all need to embrace the Land & Water Forum process because farmers need good quality water too," Wills says.