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National News> Media Releases
18 June 2007
The Editor
The New Zealand Farmers Weekly
PO Box 529
Feilding
Dear Sir,
You have completely missed the point raised by Ngai Tahu chairman Mark Solomon in your editorial of 11 June 07. Mr. Solomon made the observation that, “…an entirely new industry has been introduced to the detriment of the environment…” in reference to intensive agriculture. He did not advocate a return to a “James Herriot rural idyll”, but simply that modern farming operations must be environmentally sustainable.
Yes, the industrialisation and corporatisation of farming has been going on for decades, and like the industrial revolution of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, is leaving a legacy of environmental degradation. Your editorial seems to suggest that the adverse environmental effects of industrialised and intensive agriculture are part of the package. The recent Lincoln University survey on “Public Perceptions of New Zealand’s Environment” would suggest that the rest of New Zealand would not agree.
On this issue and in the same edition, your columnist Ian Emerson noted his “concern about the present state of euphoria center[ing] on the issue of long term sustainability”, recalled a “senior government advisor saying if we really cared about the environment we wouldn’t allow another dairy conversion”, and reminded us of Morgan Williams’ suggestion that, “intensive agriculture was not sustainable in the long term”. He also went on to bag Fish & Game as the ‘dirty dairying’ messenger, but he supported the message.
Ian Emerson reported on his visit to a Lincoln dairy farm and is “in no doubt intensive dairying can be environmentally sustainable”. As Mark Solomon advocated, Emerson asked, “how many dairy farms are even approaching the Lincoln standard?”
It’s time to stop prevaricating and to recognise the realities: regardless of the short-term economics, all agriculture must be environmentally sustainable. New Zealanders demand it, and so too do the markets.
Yours sincerely,
Bryce Johnson
Chief Executive Fish & Game New Zealand
021 397 897 | 
