Fonterra want to drop an ocean of cow shit onto South Canterbury

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milking-it

After the meltdown of Dairy intensification and the billions of dollars worth of debt promoted  by the Government, after robbing Canterbury of their democratic defences to allow farmers more water rights, after selling off 49% of our assets to fund $400m worth of irrigation, after our rivers have become toxic, after Ashburton insanely allows a corporation to take a billion litres of water and after letting farmers off the hook for any real commitment against climate change, we now have Fonterra wanting to dump an ocean of cow shit on South Canterbury…

Expanded Fonterra milk plant equivalent of dropping Jakarta on South Canterbury, opponents say

Fonterra’s expanded milk plant would need the milk of up-to a million more cows – the equivalent of dropping a city the size of Jakarta on South Canterbury without a sewerage plan, it has been claimed.

The plant, at Studholme, near Waimate in South Canterbury, would need milk from between 550,000 and one million extra cows to derive the economic benefits Fonterra expects, a panel of resource consent commissioners heard.

Former Green Party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons, on behalf of the Coal Action Network, said such a significant upscaling would have a huge and enduring impact on the South Canterbury environment.

“The cows would be the equivalent of putting a city the size of Jakarta in South Canterbury with no sewerage plan,” she told Fairfax sduring the hearing at the Waimate Community Centre on Wednesday.

“Fonterra plans to dry nine million litres per day of milk in this new plant, that milk is not there now and Fonterra has offered no evidence that it ever will be.”

…it’s like nothing has been learned from the dairy intensification backfire or the damage it does to our environment. With National in full spectrum dominance of NZ politically, media wise and culturally there is no way to temper the greed of their biggest supporters.

And let’s not forget this legacy…

Scientists warn NZ aquifers are being poisoned by farming

Although some aquifers are already contaminated, they say the worst is yet to hit because pollutants like nitrate, can take decades to get down to the drinking supply.
Canterbury University’s Dr Jenny Webster-Brown says nitrate will loom large in New Zealand’s future, but it’s already a public health concern.
“I think we’re definitely going to see things get worse before they get better.”

Pregnant women and mums with young babies on private bores around Ashburton are advised to use bottled water as high nitrate levels can block oxygen in babies and cause the potentially fatal blue baby syndome.
Environment Canerbury test results show nitrate hotspots around Canterbury is growing.
Nitrate levels also exceed drinking standards in some areas of Southland, Waikato and Bombay due to market gardening leading to nitrate leaching.
But much of the nitrate in underground water now is from farming 30 or 40 years ago, which pre-dates dairy conversions.
Dr Webster-Brown says with the dairy industry now using nitrogen, levels will rise distinctly.

Checks and balance have been replaced by cheques and bank balances, our denial over climate change and the never ending focus on mass produced raw ingredients rather than developed products will never grow our economy and will irreparably damage our eco-system.

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4 COMMENTS

  1. ‘our denial over climate change’

    And denial over numerous catastrophic the effects of the planetary meltdown now underway:

    ‘Davidson said recent data that has been collected but has yet to be made official indicates sea levels could rise by roughly 3 meters or 9 feet by 2050-2060, far higher and quicker than current projections.’

    http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2016/04/12/405089.htm

    With overheating accelerating, even the dire forecast of 3 metres of sea level rise within 35 years starts to look highly optimistic:

    http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/apr/15/march-temperature-smashes-100-year-global-record

    How could the meltdown not be accelerating when atmospheric CO2 is at a record high (409ppm)

    https://scripps.ucsd.edu/programs/keelingcurve/wp-content/plugins/sio-bluemoon/graphs/mlo_two_years.png

    and rising by ever greater amounts (recent year-to-year results up by 4 to 5 ppm)?

    And then there’s the METAHANE that accompanies the cow shit -not that I’m blaming cows for our predicament because it is perfectly obvious where the blame lies.

  2. Unbelievable Martyn – we know the company is run by a European and winder do they allow this pollution over there????

    I don’t think so as my Son in Germany says no they are much stricter there now.

    Is this because these companies in Christchurch are also foreign companies engaging in “Dirty farming” when they cant carry those practises out at their home?

    beta.euractiv.com/…/agriculture…/parliament-tightens-eu-groundwater-poll…

    The Parliament has voted to beef up EU standards to limit the levels of … The European Parliament on 13 June backed proposals to tighten a 1980’s directive that seeks to prevent groundwater from pollution by agricultural residues

    http://bwb.co.nz/books/polluted-inheritance

    The parlous state of our freshwater ecosystems is just one signal that we face a more widespread, and unprecedented, environmental crisis.

    New Zealand’s dairy industry is big business. But what are the hidden – and not so hidden – costs of intensive farming?

    Evidence presented here by ecologist Mike Joy demonstrates that intensive dairy farming has degraded our freshwater rivers, streams and lakes to an alarming degree. This situation, he argues, has arisen primarily through governmental policy that prioritises short-term economic growth over long-term environmental sustainability. This BWB Text is a call to arms, urging New Zealand to change course or risk the wellbeing of future generations.

    http://ec.europa.eu/environment/eussd/food.htm

    Where the hell is our Minister for the Environment he needs a WAKE UP!!!!

  3. About the use of bottled water.
    On TV1 news the reporter said that it was impossible to filter the nitrates out of water with domestic water filters.
    So when all the water supplies are polluted by nitrates then do we start importing water or do we drink b…. coca cola?
    In any other country alarm bells would be going off right now.
    But in New Zealand, the government doesn’t give a s…t (no pun intended).
    I used to think the Rogernome government was the worst ever government in New Zealand. It has been well and truly surpassed in its awfulness by the John Key Flying Circus.
    Don’t hear the expression Godzone much nowadays, do we?

  4. This Australian paper presented in 2006 didn’t give Canterbury farming a good review. Given the lack of interest in protecting our environment and keeping our rivers clean over the years, I wonder what a report carried out today would reveal. Fonterra is one of the major destroyers of the environment on the plant and money is god:
    https://researcharchive.lincoln.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10182/4766/Dairy_farming_in_Canterbury.pdf?sequence=1
    http://www.greenpeace.org/new-zealand/en/blog/is-fonterras-industrial-dairying-fuelling-for/blog/54688/
    http://questoes.blogs.com/news_about_mining/2015/10/fonterra-uses-more-coal-than-huntly-coal-fired-power-station.html
    http://www.businesstobusiness.co.nz/article/new-report-shows-massive-carbon-footprint-fonterras-pke-imports
    Small farms run by people who love and care for the land is our future.

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