MAF’s snapshot of progress on dairying and the clean stream accord shows there is still a lot of work to be done to improve the perofrmance of some farmers.
Agriculture Minister David Carter is right:
“No farmer has the right to pollute. The small numbers of dairy farmers who ignore effluent disposal requirements are testing the patience of all New Zealanders, and risk damaging the reputation of the dairy industry as a whole,” says Mr Carter.
Accidents will happen and equipment break down on the best managed operations so 100% compliance all the time will be impossible but carelessness or simple disregard for good environmental practices is unacceptable.
The regular, deliberate offenders may be small in number but they are doing a great deal of damage not just to waterways but to the reputation of dairying and New Zealand’s image as well.
The NBR’s final piece on Fonterra’s five biggest challenges deals with “dirty dairying”.
I have been impressed by GoDairy’s website where the ecological impact of the situation around dairying is highlighted as much as anything else. Being on the Canterbury Plains, evidence of maltreatment of the countryside is plain to see – notwithstanding the fact that infrastructure has over the past 5 years failed to cope with the massive upsurge in numbers of operations in what has previously been New Zealands grain and grazing area.
I would like more New Zealanders (and Alan Swann in the NBR recognises this point) to recognise this as a national issue to be addressed rather than just an industry one. In the same way that Auckland cries for national funding for major infrastructure due to it’s title as NZ’s biggest city, so should dairying ask for help with it’s title of NZ’s single biggest earner.
XChequer
http://thenzhomeoffice.blogspot.com/