Farmers welcome the PCE’s water contribution

Federated Farmers has welcomed the report of Dr Jan Wright, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, entitled, Water quality in New Zealand: Land use and nutrient pollution and is offering to help ground truth some of the modelled assumptions.

“Federated Farmers has consistently said we need good science to underpin policy decision making,” says Ian Mackenzie, Federated Farmers environment spokesperson.

“As Dr Wright conceded at the launch water is complex and the modelling arguably represents the worst case. It does however highlight the cumulative effects of land use intensity upon water. It represents our future if we do absolutely nothing but that is not a future we’d like to be a part of.

“Farmers understand there are some challenges but we mustn’t forget that New Zealand has some of the best quality water on earth. There is also enormous resource and work being put into finding practical workable solutions and we have made some good progress.

“For example Fonterra has confirmed that its suppliers will, within the next two weeks, have fenced 24,400 kilometres of waterways. This is half way around the world but if you count the second wire dairy farmers have gone all the way.

“Much of the good news is outside the scope of Dr Jan Wright’s report, such as the National Objectives Framework for freshwater management that was released for consultation only two weeks ago.

“This will give communities the power to set their own aspirations for water, which is environmentally, culturally, economically and scientifically informed. National bottom lines are proposed and based on the input of 60 of New Zealand’s top freshwater scientists too.

“We know this will not be easy and will need some sacrifice from agriculture and urban communities alike. If anything Dr Wright’s report confirms this as a sound policy track.

“As Dr Wright’s last water report pointed out, water quality is a function of nitrogen and phosphorous as well as sediment and e-coli. This means every New Zealander has a part to play in improving water quality.

“Another thing outside the scope of Dr Wright’s report is considerable research going into the farm system from soils to livestock.

“AgResearch, for one, is involved in a number of research projects investigating both nitrogen and phosphorus losses from pastoral land use to water. The scope of this research includes improving our understanding of nutrient transport processes, methods for reducing nutrient losses and adoption as well as practice change.

“AgResearch started another project this year looking specifically at improving our understanding of phosphorus loss to groundwater and connected surface waters in areas with shallow soils.

“As Dr Wright said at the report launch, she is the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment and not for the economy. The focus of her report is the environment and we would be happy to help her and her team to contextualise this report.

“The fact is we are losing productive farmland at a rate of knots. Last year, Landcare Research found an average of 5800 new lifestyle blocks had been added every year since 1998 and they now cover an astonishing 873,000 hectares.

“Modelling for Lake Rotorua indicated it would take decades to improve but targets were reached last year in fact.

“Lake Rotorua shows you what is possible when a community pulls together and in the spirit of pulling together is why Dr Wright needs to be congratulated for her contribution,” Mr Mackenzie concluded.

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