The recent debate about farming cows in enclosures has taken another turn with the Minister for the Environment calling in the discharge consents at the heart of this matter.The Beehive website records that consent applications have been received from Southdown Holdings Ltd, Williamson Holdings Ltd, and Five Rivers Ltd and involve nearly 18,000 cows being housed eight months of the year on farms totalling a land area of 8555 hectares, holding ponds totalling 77 million litres and discharges of 1,743,000 litres of effluent per day.
Environment Minister Nick Smith states the reasons for the call- in as follows:
"I have called in these discharge consents as they are nationally significant due to their scale, the fragile and iconic nature of the Mackenzie Basin environment, the importance of freshwater quality to the Government and the high level of public interest,"
"The effluent from these intensive farms is equivalent to a city of 250,000 people and raises quite legitimate questions over the long-term impacts on the water quality in the Mackenzie Basin…”’ http://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/minister+calls+mackenzie+basin+dairy+discharge+consents
Equivalent to effluent discharges from a city of 250,000!!!!!.... In a fragile and iconic landscape. … In New Zealand… the home of the clean and green…??? Discharges aside there are also significant questions of animal welfare involved which may be more difficult to resolve under the Resource Management Act 1991.
Having not long completed reading Michael Pollan, The Omnivores Dilemma; the search for a perfect meal in a fast food world, (2006) (see December blog), I was busy thinking how lucky I was to live in New Zealand where the bulk of our farming is carried out outdoors. This issue is receiving reasonable attention throughout the country and beyond. A recent Facebook group I was invited to join now hosts a group membership of close to 30,000 and rising. The progress of the applications will be able to be tracked through the MFE website under headings of News and Environmental Governance. http://www.mfe.govt.nz/index.html
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