Action urged on 'dirty dairying'

Waikato Federated Farmers is calling for Fonterra to take a "big stand" against one of New Zealand's largest corporate dairy farmers, the CraFarm group, if it is successfully prosecuted for "dirty dairying" in the Waikato for a fifth time.

The group, headed by former Fonterra Shareholders' Council member Allan Crafar and described by Environment Waikato regulatory committee chairman Ian Balme as "poster boys for dirty dairying", has been prosecuted four times for dirty dairying in the Waikato and two other prosecutions will soon go before the court.

At yesterday's meeting of the Waikato Federated Farmers Dairy Industry Group, Fonterra Shareholders Council member Neil McLean wanted to know what fellow farmers thought of a letter in which Mr Balme said "mining the land in this kind of destructive way deservedly earns the wrath of good farmers".

Mr Balme also claimed Fonterra's actions were not consistent with its claims of commitment to environmental responsibility. The co-op has not refused to collect milk, as it once said it would of offending farmers, neither has it imposed any financial penalties on the Crafars.

"The rest of us are paying the Crafars' environmental bill. This is not responsible capitalism; it's simply dirty business," Mr Balme said in the letter.

Dairy Industry Group chairman John Bluett warned public outrage at such practices was on the increase and thought it was unjust that the regional council and Fonterra should pour resources into helping set offenders straight when complying farmers were having to spend their own money to get things right.

"Why should one big corporate farmer get all the input from staff to solve the problem we are trying to solve ourselves?" he said.

"Fonterra and DairyNZ have put a lot of farmer paid resources into the operation and they are still doing it. I don't have a lot of sympathy for them because of the resources they are putting in there."

Bruce MacDonald thought the problem was the regional council's, but Chris Lewis said offenders supplying the likes of Fonterra rival Open Country Cheese would find the company refusing to pick up milk.

Mr McLean asked whether the Dairy Industry Group was comfortable with Fonterra's position.

"Next time they need to take a big stand," Mr Bluett said.

John Hutchings, general manager of sustainable production for Fonterra, said the writing could be on the wall for CraFarms.

"I can't stand in their defence. They have appointed a manager to improve their effluent management system across all their farms. We are working with them to achieve compliance."