Dairy's in the news

Yesterday's front page article on the new rules for dairying in the south carries the responses from the industry, and they are far from rosy. In fact, the backs of the main players in the dairy industry seem to be well up. Both the Federated Farmers and Dairy NZ express their concern and disappointment at the proposals from the regional council to require new dairy farms to have to comply with resource consent conditions. The surprise the industry representatives expressed in the article belies the degree of consultation that has been going on between them and ES, but that's politics for you. The editorial in today's edition of the Southland Times is an excellent response to the previous day's report and cleverly titles itself, "Dairy rules okay". In it, the clear-sighted editior-who-shall-remain-anonymous in the tradition of some papers, begins,

"Environment Southland has developed a spine."

It goes on to gently chide the industry for its churlish response to the news that the council has drawn a line in the Southland sand. The editorial (not on-line yet but when it does appear, I'll link to it) finishes with a little deserved self-congratulation, by saying,
"Environment Southland chairman Ali Timms has acknowledged that the council has been "taught" that it wasn't doing enough to protect the environment. No argument here. However, it has been working on these latest policies for some time. The Southland Times' campaign during the past fortnight to heighten awareness of the dreadful state of our waterways hasn't forced the transitional policy into existence. We would like to think, though, that it didn't hurt its prospects either.