Activists from Climate Justice Taranaki and Greenpeace locked on to the Ballance fertiliser plant in Kapuni (South Taranaki) today in protest to the continued use of fossil fuel based fertilisers for industrial farming which is killing the climate, waterways and soils.

"Communities have been calling for an end to industrial extractive farming and the use of synthetic urea for decades. We need to urgently end our reliance on fossil fuels if we want to have any chance of halting runaway climate change. Coal, oil and even gas, touted as a transition fuel, all need to stay in the ground. Urea fertiliser, whether made from natural gas or hydrogen, drives industrial farming which degrades our soil and waterways, disrupts our climate and locks our farmers in debt" said Emily Bailey, spokesperson for Climate Justice Taranaki.

"Government has been captured by big corporate interests for far too long. We are putting our bodies on the line in solidarity with our Pacific brothers and sisters whose islands are disappearing while oil companies continue to extract fossil fuels. We have more than enough energy to live comfortably if we use it wisely and don't allow corporations to squander it for profit making."

"Communities are calling for urgent change now. We need an urgent plan to end gas extraction by 2025 and put energy production back in public hands. We need an urgent shift to regenerative agriculture to supply local markets with real, healthy food that nourish the communities and the farmers, without harm to our soils and waterways. Fossil fuels and industrial farming are not our future."

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