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Greenpeace response to OECD and Vivid reports
Greenpeace response to OECD and Vivid
reports
Reports point to solution for a double
environmental fix.
International reports out today
point to reducing cow numbers as a possible answer to two
environmental dilemmas facing New Zealanders.
The OECD
report says increasing dairy herds have driven up nitrogen
pollution levels in waterways.
While a Vivid Economics
paper is suggesting cutting the dairy herd by a third to
meet our climate change obligations.
“Both
greenhouse gas emissions and pollution of rivers can be
curtailed by reducing our expanding dairy herd, says
Greenpeace’s Gen Toop.
“It gives the Government a
unique opportunity to fix two environmental problems in one
fell swoop.”
Greenpeace is challenging all parties
to say what they are going to do about the expanding dairy
industry.
“Industrial dairying and the environment
are on a head on collision course. Choices have to be made,
we can have more cows or a clean environment, not both”
says Toop.
The first step would be to scrap the $480
million irrigation fund which is driving the expansion of
dirty dairying.
The OECD report says New Zealand’s
state funding of irrigation projects needs to be reviewed
given that irrigation risks further degrading of water
quality due to intensification of agriculture.
That
money should be used to research new sustainable ways of
farming that need less water - otherwise our already
degraded clean green image will become nothing more than a
mirage.
Ends
Greenpeace
Greenpeace exists because this fragile earth deserves a voice.
Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning organisation that acts to change attitudes and behaviour, to protect and conserve the environment and to promote peace.
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