New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

"dirty dairying" refers to damage to the ecological health of New Zealand's

freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does include ...

environment by the intensification of

dairy farming Dairy farming is a class of agriculture for long-term production of milk, which is processed (either on the farm or at a dairy plant, either of which may be called a dairy A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting or ...

, and also to the high profile campaign begun in 2002 by the Fish and Game Council to highlight and combat this. The campaign led to the creation in 2003 of the

Dairying and Clean Streams Accord The Dairying and Clean Streams Accord is an agreement signed in 2003 in New Zealand between Fonterra, Ministry for the Environment, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and regional councils. The Accord was prompted by the high-profile "dirty dai ...

, a voluntary agreement between Fonterra, Ministry for the Environment, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, and regional councils. In 2014 the Dairying and Clean Streams Accord was succeeded by the Sustainable Dairying: Water Accord.

Effects

Intensive dairy farming practices has led to

water pollution Water pollution (or aquatic pollution) is the contamination of water bodies, usually as a result of human activities, so that it negatively affects its uses. Water bodies include lakes, rivers, oceans, aquifers, reservoirs and groundwater. Water ...

from cattle effluent in many of the streams and rivers in New Zealand. The Waikato River has had a long history of water pollution and now fails health regulations for human contact. It passes through the highly productive Waikato region, where dairy farming is a common land use. More recently, the Manawatu River has been highlighted in the media due to its high pollution levels.

Lake Ellesmere Lake Ellesmere / Te Waihora is a broad, shallow coastal lake or waituna, in the Canterbury region of the South Island of New Zealand. It is directly to the west of Banks Peninsula, separated from the Pacific Ocean by the long, narrow, sandy K ...

has suffered from

eutrophication Eutrophication is the process by which an entire body of water, or parts of it, becomes progressively enriched with minerals and nutrients, particularly nitrogen and phosphorus. It has also been defined as "nutrient-induced increase in phytopla ...

since the 1970s due to farming activities in the area, Lake Taupo has had government funding to curb pollution, and the

Rotorua Rotorua () is a city in the Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand's North Island. The city lies on the southern shores of Lake Rotorua, from which it takes its name. It is the seat of the Rotorua Lakes District, a territorial authority encompass ...

lakes are heavily polluted. A study using water quality data from 1996 to 2002 found that the vast majority of lowland rivers and streams passing through pastoral land were polluted.

Prosecutions

There have been a number of prosecutions for dirty dairying. Over a four-year period from July 2008 until June 2012 at least 151 prosecutions involving 300 charges were made for unlawful discharges of dairy effluent. Environment Court fines collected for the period totalled $NZ$3.2 million. Some notable cases include: * In June 2008 numerous South Otago farmers and companies were prosecuted under the Resource Management Act for unauthorised effluent discharges. The defendants were convicted by the Environment Court. * In August 2008 the West Coast Regional Council, responsible for water quality regulation, was accused of complacency by the West Coast District Health Board for failing to have any official water source meet the drinking water standard. * The Crafar family, as well as being accused of animal cruelty, were prosecuted seven times over a period of three years before their farms were placed in receivership in October 2009. A $45,000 fine was handed down to the Crafars and their sharemilker in 2010 for allowing effluent to enter a waterway near the town of

Bulls Bulls may refer to: *The plural of bull, an adult male bovine *Bulls, New Zealand, a small town in the Rangitikei District Sports *Bucking bull, used in the sport of bull riding *Bulls (rugby union), a South African rugby union franchise operated ...

. *In 2010 the Whataroa company Potae and van der Poel Ltd were given a $120,000 fine, possibly the largest of its type up to that time, for repeated breaches of effluent discharge. The company had been issued with abatement notices for effluent runoff three farms in 2008. Effluent had entered tributaries of the

Whataroa River The Whataroa River, sometimes the Wataroa River, is a river in the southern West Coast region of New Zealand's South Island. Its source is in the Southern Alps and it flows north and northwest, passing the township of Whataroa on the easte ...

. * In April 2019 a Cambridge farming company and one of its directors was convicted of eight charges under the Resource Management Act (RMA), and fined a total of $131,840. One of its directors, Dawson Craig Pollock, had been the subject of prosecution for similar breaches in 1993 and 2001. * Waikato farmer Aaron John Miller, and his company Ondaedge Farms Ltd, convicted and fined $30,000 in August 2019 for discharging dairy effluent into the environment.

Legislation and regulation

* Resource Management Act 1991

References

External links

Fish and Game
- stance on dairy farming ;News *{{cite news, url=http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/fonterra-s-five-biggest-challenges-part-v-dirty-dairying-78677 , title=Fonterra’s five biggest challenges: Part V – "Dirty Dairying" , last=Swann , first=Allan , date=2009-03-13 , work=National Business Review , accessdate=24 April 2010 , url-status=dead , archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20091011061146/http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/fonterra-s-five-biggest-challenges-part-v-dirty-dairying-78677 , archivedate=11 October 2009 Dairy farming in New Zealand Environmental impact of agriculture Pollution in New Zealand Water pollution in New Zealand

Effects

Prosecutions

Legislation and regulation

See also

References

Further reading

External links