MEDIA RELEASE

6 March 2009

Fonterra’s Effluent Compliance Targets Too Little

Fish & Game New Zealand welcomes Fonterra’s measures to lift dairy effluent compliance announced today, but urges a much more robust approach.

“Setting a goal of reducing serious non-compliance by 50% by August 2011 is the equivalent of saying ‘we accept half of those farms in serious breach of their consents now continuing to pollute New Zealand’s waterways’”, said Bryce Johnson, Chief Executive New Zealand Fish & Game Council.

“Fonterra is explicitly condoning the ongoing flaunting of the law by a proportion of their farmer shareholders. This is not acceptable to most New Zealanders, and a target of 100% compliance with resource consents is surely the only acceptable goal.”

“The dairy industry has been exposed to the requirement for environmentally sustainable agriculture for many years now, and to set a target of 50% improvement over two and half years is smacks of ‘green wash’.”

“The law is the law, and farmers are not exempt from their responsibilities for 100% compliance with resource consents.”

ENDS

© Scoop Media