Climate Activists to Dairy Summit: ‘Get a real job on a real farm’

Camp for Climate Action Aotearoa

Media Release: 9th November 2010

Camp for Climate Action Aotearoa invites the corporate farmers of the World Dairy Summit to get a real job on a real farm

In response to yesterday’s Federated Farmer’s press release telling protestors of the World Dairy Summit in Auckland to “Get a real job like farming” Camp for Climate Action Aotearoa suggests that Federated Farmer’s listen to their own advice.

Camp for Climate Action Aotearoa spokesperson Gary Cranston says “we support the actions of small scale farmers all over the world who are already living sustainably, feeding their communities and defending their climate-friendly farming practices from mega-scale agribusinesses.”

“As a stream of greenwash spews from the World Dairy Summit into our rivers small-scale farmer’s livelihoods are not only threatened by climate change, they’re also threatened by industrial agriculture itself and the kind of money-making false solutions that the world’s agribusiness giants are pedalling at the UN climate negotiations and through John Key’s Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases.”

Water: ‘When Federated Farmers asks, the Government listens’

by Pat O’Dea


Wondering what is behind the sacking of the Canterbury Regional Council over the control of Canterbury’s water resources? When Federated Farmers ask, the Government listens.

New Zealand’s biggest business pressure group put out their wish list in early February. Since then the Government has been ticking the boxes one by one.

Saving Public Water & defending democracy in Canterbury

Environment Canterbury’s (Canterbury Regional Council) elected councillors are getting the sack, to be replaced by a Government appointed commissioner.

This anti-democratic move will save supporters of industrial dairying from humiliation at October’s local elections, and allow industry and government to get on with their goal of polluting and privatising Canterbury’s water.

The Water Forum has called a public meeting to bring together water campaigners to discuss the next step.

Saving Public Water

Saturday April 10

4 to 6 pm

WEA, 59 Glouchester St

Christchurch

Don't dam the Hurunui River

A thousand people joined a lunch time march in Christchurch on Friday October 16, to oppose an irrigation dam on North Canterbury’s Hurunui River.The march was the biggest ever public demonstration of opposition to the environmental damage done by industrial dairy farming and intensive irrigation on the Canterbury Plains. For more information on the campaign to stop the dam here.

Bank lending to dairy farmers NZ equivalent of US sub-prime lending

New Zealand farmers are in debt to the tune of $45 billion, 61% of which is in the dairy sector. This ballooning of debt over recent years is New Zealand's equivalent of the US sub-prime lending that sparked the financial crisis. This is the claim made by Fran O'Sullivan, leading business columnist for the NZ Herald, in her article White gold rush turns deep shade of red. She writes: "Where that farm debt is highly concentrated - eg, at least 20 per cent of New Zealand's dairy farm production - it is such that farms cannot, and will not ever, meet their debt servicing commitments even under the most promising payout and interest rate scenarios. This is New Zealand's equivalent to US sub-prime lending: reliant on continuing asset gains as income was never going to meet debt-servicing commitments." This bank driven "land bubble" is about to burst with dairy prices falling due to falling global demand, compounded by a high NZ dollar. The dairy industry is a huge part of the NZ economy, being the largest exported commodity. A big drop in rural income will drag the whole NZ economy downwards with a flow-on political impact.

Greenpeace fights Labour government methane deniers

by PAT O'DEA

Greenpeace has labeled the Labour government claims of being a world leader on climate "farcical" in the wake of state-owned enterprise Landcorp replacing forests with methane-emitting dairy farms.

Greenpeace also has no hesitation in accusing the Labour government of "double standards" over NZ coal exports.

But why are Green Party leaders silent on these issues?

Are they silent because they can't offend their 'more market-friendly' coalition partner?

Or is their own acceptance of the market, and market mechanisms as a "solution" to pollution, keeping them quiet?

Questions like these need to be be asked by Greens supporters.

GREENPEACE RESPONSE

by Nick Young
Greenpeace NZ
http://weblog.greenpeace.org.nzg/

After exposing http://weblog.greenpeace.org.nz/tag/lyttelton-coal-action/ the Government's double standards on climate change in Lyttelton recently, the crew of the Rainbow Warrior left the ship to do it again.

They headed north in a minivan inland towards Taupo. There they met a team of volunteers who'd driven down from Auckland. Early this morning they set about digging up pasture http://www.greenpeace.org/new-zealand/news/reforesting-dairy that's about to become a dairy farm and replanting it with trees. With their gumboots on and lots of nice mulch at hand, they proceeded to plant over 1,000 trees in a large area recently cleared and planted in grass.

Let me explain.

This was no ordinary dairy farm. It is one among many brand new dairy farms in a vast tract of land that, until recently, was a pine plantation. The land is leased by Landcorp - a State Owned Enterprise.

Just as Solid Energy is expanding the mining and export of coal, Landcorp is overseeing the conversion of huge tracts of land for the expansion of intensive dairy farming.

Pine plantations are not the best use of land at the best of times but cutting them down to be replaced by dairy cows is perhaps the stupidest thing that could be done with a bunch of trees.

Dairy farming is a major contributor to our greenhouse gas emissions. It is farcical to have two state owned enterprises rapidly increasing its emissions whilst the Government claims to be a world leader on climate. And, like the coal expansion we highlighted in Lyttelton, it also threatens NZ's clean green image that the dairy industry relies on.

Converting forestry to make way for cows is effectively a 'double whammy' for the climate as it destroys forests and replaces it with dairy farming - the most greenhouse gas intensive form of land use.

We are calling for a halt to the expansion of dairying until it can be shown to be more sustainable, and for the sector to be brought into the Emissions Trading Scheme within the next two years.