Dairy sector ‘trashing’ NZ’s water and image
New Zealand is scoring a ‘‘huge own goal’’ by allowing the dairy industry to trash its rivers and its clean, green image, freshwater ecologist Dr Mike Joy says.
In an opinion piece published on The New York Times website, Joy and co-writer David Larsen said Canterbury was ‘‘a disastrous case study in the consequences for our freshwater systems’’.
‘‘The contamination of Canterbury’s freshwater easily ranks among the worst environmental disasters in New Zealand history,’’ they wrote in a piece titled The Incontinent Cows of Middle-Earth.
The region’s rivers were a long way from clean and if they seemed green, it was because of the algal levels, they said.
However, farmers have hit back at the comments, saying they amounted to ‘‘economic treason’’.
‘‘Sending an opinion piece like that to The New York Times, all it does is undermine New Zealand’s economy and the people who work in it,’’ Federated Farmers dairy chairman Chris Lewis said.
‘‘It is easy to fire off words, it is harder to get out there and do the work that we are doing.
‘‘You can say whatever you want but if you are not picking up a spade to help, what are you actually contributing?’’
Joy disagreed that farmers were doing any meaningful work to improve freshwater quality.
‘‘I am not going to give them credit for something they haven’t done,’’ he said. ‘‘They throw the number out there, $1 billion or whatever, saying they have spent that on cleaning up the water but that is just the cost of doing business.
‘‘It is like me saying I spent $750 having the brakes fixed on my car so you should be thankful I’m not going to crash into you.’’
However, Joy said the problem was driven by the dairy industry, not by farmers.
‘‘It is not the farmers’ fault. ‘‘Farmers are being squished and pushed to intensify, fertiliser companies want them to buy more product and that ends up in the water,’’ he said.
‘‘I will credit them that it is not their fault.’’
Joy said there were more efficient and sustainable dairy farming practices that could help address the problem.
‘‘We could have way fewer cows and farmers making more money but there needs to be a real, grown-up conversation about it.’’
DairyNZ chief executive Tim Mackle said it was ‘‘always gutting’’ to see a vocal minority running down the country’s agricultural sector.
‘‘It is a very un-Kiwi thing to do, to go and criticise not only agriculture but also tourism,’’ he said.
‘‘New Zealand won’t solve its water quality issues if we are just focused on dairy.’’
While Joy claimed DairyNZ had bought into media company NZME and was controlling the narrative with its The Vision Is Clear project, Mackle said that view was ‘‘quite uncharitable’’.
‘‘It is not about deflection, it is about owning our issues,’’ he said. ‘‘We are saying we are part of the problem but we are also part of the solution and we are doing the work.
‘‘But we can’t do it alone.’’