Dairy farming is back in the news and the news is not good for Southland.
Dr Jan Wright, Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment has
reported that water quality in Southland has significantly worsened as
dairying has intensified.
She wants our regional council to act more
strongly and suggests doing several things, including limiting the number
of dairy farms in Southland and limiting the concentration of cows on each
farm. Federated Farmers' chairman Russel McPherson reacted with the usual "no
rules, no regulations for farmers", hoping for business as usual.
What the people of Southland perhaps don't know, is that a number
of councillors of Environment Southland think the same way as Federated
Farmers and oppose setting rules and regulations, preferring instead to
let the dairy industry or 'the market' decide these things.
This is very wrong, in my view.
Environment Southland is a regulatory authority. Councillors are elected
to regulate.
Handing that responsibility to the dairy industry when our
shared water resource is under threat would be irresponsible and wrong.
Robert Guyton
Riverton
11 comments:
I will have a letter in the next day or two about voting in the referendum, we Greenies like writing letters and sticking it to those who don't think we should have a public voice :-)
Where do we get this "no regulation" rubbish from anyway? Shouldn't the government be stronger than any one company? Certainly than offending companies thrashing the environment and ruining water quality for all of us?
Get right wingers, you need to be more *conserve*ative! :-)
I'll suspend my letter ranting campaign for now, giving M Poulson a chance to recover!
However, there's a good line in there somewhere about "....government should be small enough to drown it in the bath tub" contrasted with "don't throw the baby out with the bath water"
"Green" is the word, bsprout. It' appearing in every second letter to the editor nowadays, whether in connection with shark-finning, climate change of dairying. Seems they just can't ignore the Growing Green Giant. Your letter with have them foaming green at the gills.
"No regulation" comes from farmers (You'll not tell me what to do on my own land!") I do wonder though, about that roadside fencing - should that be down to farmer discretion? 'parently not. The Government too, seeks to disable the councils by pressing 'collaboration' on them, thus gifting industry lobby groups with opportunity to really lever what they want.
regulate should follow educate. First the carrot then the stick. Good leadership is how sore your left arm becomes giving away carrots in comparison to how sore your right arm is wielding the stick.
We need also a government that is serious about doing something about environmental pollution .. economically it makes sense ..re public health ..BUT sadly our govt makes noises but is not prepared to back up what is claims it wants with serious legislation that would seriously hurt those that are willfully and selfishly polluting as they know there is very little at present to force them not to pollute !
Philip - certainly carrot first, stick later, but ES has been casting carrots for a very long time now. In my view, the line should be drawn, then carrots cast to assist those who might stray over that line, to stay well within it. Not having the line leaves everybody unsure of what's what.
Unusually find myself agreeing with Philip Todd.
To go further heavy handed regulation won't solve the problem and may well create others.
I would also take issue with the "Councillors are elected to regulate" line.
Why wont regulation work, paranormal?
Roadside fencing is a rule. Farmers do it, end of story.
Wow para dont go all warm and fuzzy.All that watching the Americas cup has you leaning to the left maybe?
The carrot and the stick should accompany each other. Each is less valuable without the other.
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