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Today in our local Farmers Weekly paper November 5, 2018 the first para says ‘Fonterra achieved a positive result in only one of its nine key performance indicators in the 2018 year’.
In the Katikati Advertiser on November 1, 2018, Nick Burke of the Mid-Northern farmer Council Beef + Lamb NZ writes that Fonterra is out of step with water. Both Fonterra and Dairy NZ continue to support the principle of grandparenting. More than 1000 submissions to the Waikato Waipa Healthy Rivers Plan change 1 oppose it.
The grandparenting principle is based around historical use of nitrogen (N) by giving each property and N Discharge allowance, assessed over historical years of production.
High leachers of nitrogen are allowed to carry on leaching N in an unsustainable manner. Nitrogen gets into our waterways through the soil or overland flow. Grandparenting effectively protects the polluter by offsetting nitrogen loss onto other farmers with low N loss rates.
Why is Fonterra obsessed with protecting farm suppliers who farm intensively, relying on excessive amounts of nitrogen and palm kernel?
Read more… https://www.nzherald.co.nz/the-country/news/article.cfm?c_id=16&objectid=12152792
