Fonterra doesn’t care about New Zealand. That’s Greenpeace Aotearoa’s message following the confirmation of sale of Fonterra’s consumer brands this morning.
Greenpeace spokesperson Sinéad Deighton-O’Flynn says, “Fonterra’s CEO Miles Hurrell has shown that he views New Zealand as nothing more than a milk powder factory, creating low-value products to ship overseas for use in Mars Bars.”
“People can’t afford to buy butter, their water is contaminated with nitrate and E. coli, and the worsening impacts of the climate crisis are being felt across the country. Meanwhile, New Zealand’s worst climate polluter has made a killing selling off its consumer brands to French dairy giant Lactalis. Fonterra is milking us dry and selling us all out.”
“While Fonterra makes $4.2 billion from the brand sale, New Zealand’s integrity as a fair and socially responsible country is being whittled away by the impacts of intensive dairying.”
Two thirds of rivers and lakes are too degraded to swim in or collect kai from, and many rural communities can’t drink the water coming out of their kitchen tap because of nitrate contamination from intensive dairying.
Fonterra is also New Zealand’s worst climate polluter, producing massive amounts of superheating methane gas.
“Fonterra is driving catastrophic climate change.” says Deighton-O’Flynn. “Already this year we’ve seen multiple extreme weather events hitting rural communities hard, and unless Fonterra supports farmers to move away from its intensive farming practices, these events will get worse.”
Over the long weekend, New Zealanders were hit by yet another extreme weather event in the South Island, made more likely due to climate change.
“We all want a stable climate to grow food, access to safe drinking water, and a secure future for our kids. But Fonterra clearly doesn’t care about New Zealanders. Instead of throwing a lifeline, and helping dairy farmers to transition away from destructive intensive dairying, Fonterra is prioritising lining the pockets of its executives.
“Any claims that this sale is good for New Zealanders are built on the fallacy of trickle down economics. The proceeds from the brand sale aren’t going to help New Zealanders struggling to pay for butter at the supermarket or recovering from storm damage, the only thing trickling down in this economy is nitrate and E. coli.”