November 8, 2006

MEDIA STATEMENT

Federated Farmers “10 in 10”campaign a step in the right direction

Environment Canterbury has welcomed the leadership shown by Federated Farmers president Charlie Pedersen in encouraging greater environmental responsibility among farmers. Mr Pedersen yesterday announced Federated Farmers’

“10 in 10” campaign aimed at encouraging individual farmers to reduce their environmental impact through nutrient losses by ten percent over the next ten years.

However Cr Ross Little, chair of ECan’s land, biodiversity and waste portfolio, points out that while this may be a worthy goal across much of New Zealand’s farmland, the more intensively farmed areas are already moving faster than that. This is evident in the results from other farming organisations like Fonterra and some fertilizer companies, he says.

But Cr Little says it’s a step in the right direction nevertheless, although preventing nutrient losses needs a “horses for courses” approach. “Many different types of environmental issues are being addressed by farmers according to the needs of their own properties,” he says.

ENDS

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