Greens welcome Federated Farmers' proposal for dairy moratorium

Calls for a moratorium on dairy conversions in the Waikato by Federated Farmers have been labelled "refreshing", by Green party co-leader Dr Russell Norman.
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Norman backed the move by the federation’s Waikato provincial president Chris Lewis, which came following concerns large scale forestry to pasture conversions would undo work by other farmers to mitigate their environmental footprint.
There was a limit to how much nutrients could be absorbed and «giant industrial conversions» were overwhelming all the good work farmers were doing, Norman said. «There’s only so much capacity for the environment to absorb it.»
Norman said it was significant this call had come from Federated Farmers. The Waikato region tended to have smaller scale family-run dairy operations compared to elsewhere in the country.
«This is the voice of the family dairy farmers trying to do the right thing to mitigate their environmental footprint and they are coming up against big industrial dairy farmers like Landcorp and realising that all of their good work will be overwhelmed by big industrial corporations.»
It was also supported by Massey University-based fresh water ecologist Dr Mike Joy.
The environmental impact of new dairy conversions in the Waikato would not be seen for 5-10 years and policy decision makers would be long gone by then, Joy said.
«But the farmers won’t be. They’ll have to stay there and they will have to face the music.»
He applauded farmers for wanting to protect their industry. It was heartbreaking to think the money and efforts farmers were investing in improving their environmental footprint would be wiped out by these expansions, he said.
Elsewhere in the country there was a battle over headroom because of over-allocation in other catchments.
Lewis’s suggestion for a moratorium was heard «with interest» by the Waikato Regional Council’s industry and infrastructure manager Brent Sinclair.
In an emailed statement, Sinclair said the council would be happy to discuss further with Federated Farmers exactly what they were looking to achieve in terms of managing water quality in the region.
Dairy conversions were not regulated in the council’s regional plan, so it lacked hard data on the number of such conversions that have taken place or been planned in the past few years.
But people undertaking conversions may require consents for a water take or earthworks.
 
Source: Stuff
 

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Así lo expresó Domingo Possetto, secretario de la seccional Rafaela, quien además, afirmó que a los productores «habitualmente los ignoran los gobiernos». Además, reconoció la labor de los empresarios de las firmas locales y aseguró que están «esperanzados» con la negociación entre SanCor y Adecoagro.

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