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Mackenzie Country Threatened By Large-Scale Agricultural Development

A New Zealand iconic landscape is being destroyed by the spread of intensive farming

Document created 28 January 2010, last updated 06 October 2010

Factory farming
This issue was recently brought to public attention by a large dairying project. The plan involved about 18,000 cows on a total land area of 8,555 hectares, with the discharge of 1,743,000 litres of effluent a day.

This would be a high-density operation, with the cows housed in “cubicle stables” 24 hours a day for eight months in the year, and allowed out of their stables for 12 hours a day for the remaining four months (see NZ Herald, 27 Jan 10, link below).

This project, when made public, raised considerable concern regarding in particular:
- cows being kept indoors which is against normal New Zealand practice and may hurt NZ’s free range reputation (see NZ Herald, 20 Jan 10, link below),
- the likely inability of the surrounding environment to cope with the proposed volume of effluent, and therefore the impact on water quality in the Mackenzie Country (see Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, link below),
- impacts on the ecology and scenery of the Mackenzie Country (see NZ Herald: “A national treasure is being squandered”, 8 Feb 10, link below).

As a result the project was first “called in” by the government, and later the resource consent originally obtained by the investor group was withdrawn (see NZ Herald 27 Jan 10 and 29 Jul 10, links below).

The wider issue
However the larger issue of agricultural development in the Mackenzie Country remains. A change in land tenure regulation in New Zealand’s high country is resulting in dramatic land use changes. Traditional grazing is being replaced by intensive dairying or other cropping such as viticulture. According to the NZ Forest & Bird Protection Society (Forest & Bird): “The creeping green stain replacing the golden tussock-lands creates a mono-culture of grass and pasture, irreversibly destroying the tussock, alpine flowers and native wildlife that has existed in this landscape for thousands of years” (see link below to webpage: “Save our Mackenzie Country” for description of natural environment and threats).

For another description of the changes occurring in the Mackenzie Country see “A National treasure is being squandered” (NZ Herald 8 Feb 10, link below).

The need for a strategic plan regarding the long-term protection and management of the Mackenzie Country has been suggested and is now being debated (see Environmental Defense Society, “Mackenzie Basin Symposium”, link below).

Links to external websites:

[wb1]  Forest & Bird (NZ) - 28 Jan 10 - Forest & Bird calls for more action to stop turning Mackenzie Basin into giant farm - Forest & Bird welcomes the Government’s call-in of the Mackenzie Basin factory farm consents, but says this will not stop the growing number of massive green

[wb2]  New Zealand Herald - 27 Jan 10- Factory farm plan "called in" by Environment Minister - The applicants had applied to the Environment Canterbury for large dairy effluent consents but the consents will now be decided by a special board set up by the minister.

[wb3]  New Zealand Herald - 20 Jan 10 - Anger rises over 'factory farming' - The Government has discussed intervening on large-scale proposals to farm cows in cubicles, as pressure grows from critics labelling it "factory farming".

[wb4]  New Zealand Herald - 8 Feb 10 - A national treasure is being squandered - The fact that the Minister for the Environment decided to call in the three controversial cubicle farming proposals in the Mackenzie basin is a great start, but more needs to be done to address the huge

[wb5]  New Zealand Herald - 5 Oct 2010 - New plans for South Island cubicle cow farms - Three companies are trying again to secure land use rights for large-scale dairy farming in the Omarama and Ohau regions of the South Island

[wb6]  Environmental Defense Society - 1 Oct 10 - Cubicle farming on again in the Mackenzie Country

[wb7]  Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (NZ) - Report: Change in the high country: Environmental stewardship and tenure review

[wb8]  Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (NZ) - Environment Commissioner welcomes Mackenzie Basin dairying consents call in

[wb9]  NZ Forest & Bird Protection Society - Click to visit webpage: "Save our Mackenzie Country"

[wb10]  Environmental Defense Society - Click to visit webpage: "Mackenzie Basin Symposium"

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