| Fish &
Game New Zealand is concerned that tomorrow’s release of the
second ever national State of the Environment report will be exploited
to provide unconvincing justification for further inaction by both
agriculture and government to clean up agriculture’s adverse
environmental impacts.
“While public and political awareness of
our deteriorating freshwater environment is improving, there are
a number of areas that consistently provide pretexts for inaction,”
said Bryce Johnson, Chief Executive Fish & Game New Zealand.
“For example, it is well understood that
water quality in urban areas is poor, where diffuse run-off from
paved areas and leaky sewage systems pollute our urban waterways.
This sad fact has been employed by Federated Farmers in the past
as some sort of justification for a lack of action on agricultural
pollution on the grounds that, ‘We’re not the only polluters,
townies are just as bad, so we don’t need to take responsibility.’
“Similarly, accepting New Zealand’s
declining water quality because it is above an OECD average is tragic.
Our clean, green 100% pure marketing edge demands a 100% pure reality,
not just ‘above average’. We have the opportunity and
ability to enjoy the multiple benefits of clean water – let’s
not settle for anything less.
“The other concern is the old, ‘We’re
working on it now’ position. The truth in most cases is, ‘We’re
talking about it now’ and the Government’s Sustainable
Water Programme of Action (or ‘Inaction’ as senior MAF
official Paul Reynolds tagged it) is one example. The Dairying and
Clean Streams Accord, a voluntary agreement with Fonterra’s
milk suppliers only, has lead to suggestions that many dairy farmers
were already farming responsibly, but having a nutrient budget doesn’t
mean applying it.”
“The report will note the reality that
water quality continues to decline in areas dominated by intensive
agriculture, and that improvement in farming practices must occur.
But what we all need to see is action; action by Government on central
policy and standards (and Canterbury’s out-of-control irrigation
takes), and action by agriculture itself to take greater formal
responsibility for cleaning up its adverse environmental effects
on waterways that we all use and depend on.”
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