Dirty dairying

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In New Zealand "dirty dairying" refers to damage to the ecological health of New Zealand's freshwater environment by the intensification of dairy farming, [1] and also to the high profile campaign begun in 2002 by the Fish and Game Council to highlight and combat this. [2] [3] [4]

Contents

The campaign led to the creation in 2003 of the Dairying and Clean Streams Accord, a voluntary agreement between Fonterra, Ministry for the Environment, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, and regional councils. In 2014 the Dairying and Clean Streams Accord was succeeded by the Sustainable Dairying: Water Accord. [5]

Effects

Intensive dairy farming practices has led to water pollution from cattle effluent in many of the streams and rivers in New Zealand. The Waikato River has had a long history of water pollution and now fails health regulations for human contact. It passes through the highly productive Waikato region, where dairy farming is a common land use. More recently, the Manawatu River has been highlighted in the media due to its high pollution levels. Lake Ellesmere has suffered from eutrophication since the 1970s due to farming activities in the area, Lake Taupo has had government funding to curb pollution, and the Rotorua lakes are heavily polluted. A study using water quality data from 1996 to 2002 found that the vast majority of lowland rivers and streams passing through pastoral land were polluted. [6]

Prosecutions

There have been a number of prosecutions for dirty dairying. Over a four-year period from July 2008 until June 2012 at least 151 prosecutions involving 300 charges were made for unlawful discharges of dairy effluent. Environment Court fines collected for the period totalled $NZ$3.2 million. [7]

Some notable cases include:

Legislation and regulation

See also

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References

  1. "A Monitoring and Reporting Strategy for the Dairying and Clean Streams Accord". Ministry for the Environment. April 2006. Archived from the original on 2012-08-05. Retrieved 2008-09-17.
  2. One News (25 June 2002). "Report into dirty dairying". TVNZ.
  3. Peden, Robert (27 September 2011). "Farming in the economy". Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand.
  4. Collins, Simon (3 July 2004). "Water fails clean, green test". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 3 August 2012.
  5. http://www.dairynz.co.nz/media/3286407/sustainable-dairying-water-accord-2015.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]
  6. Larne, Scott T.; Mike R. Scarsbrook; Ton H. Snelder; Ned J. Norton; Barry J. F. Biggs (2004). "Water quality in low-elevation streams and rivers of New Zealand: recent state and trends in contrasting land-cover classes" (PDF). New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research. National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research. 38: 347–366. doi: 10.1080/00288330.2004.9517243 .
  7. Sharpe, Marty (5 June 2012). "New Zealand Dirty Dairying Laid Bare". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 5 June 2012.
  8. "Another $54,000 in fines for dirty dairying". Otago Daily Times . 2009-06-25. Retrieved 24 April 2010.
  9. "Council 'soft' on dirty dairying". The Dominion Post . Fairfax Media NZ Ltd. 6 August 2008. Archived from the original on 19 October 2012. Retrieved 24 April 2010.
  10. Fitzsimons, Tom (2010-04-10). "Final dirty dairying fine for Crafars". The Dominion Post. Retrieved 24 April 2010.
  11. "Huge fine for dirty dairy farmers" Archived May 28, 2010, at the Wayback Machine , 21 April 2010, TVNZ
  12. Skerrett, Angie (5 April 2019). "Record fine for Waikato farmer for dairy effluent discharges". Newshub. Retrieved 19 August 2019.
  13. "Effluent over the edge attracts fine for Waikato's Ondaedge Farms". Stuff. 28 June 2019. Retrieved 19 August 2019.

Further reading

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