New Zealand faces a classic ''economy versus the environment'' dilemma, with a clear link between expanding dairy farming and increasing stress on water quality, Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Jan Wright says.
However, Irrigation New Zealand chief executive Andrew Curtis disagrees with Dr Wright's comments in a water quality report she released yesterday, saying ''win-wins'' were possible for agriculture and the environment.
Dr Wright said the country was undergoing huge changes in land use, and decision-makers needed to be aware of the consequences for the future.
While she applauded the effort being put into environmental mitigation on dairy farms, it was particularly difficult to control nitrogen, she said.
The land use model forecast that, by 2020, dairy farms would cover over 650,000 more hectares than in 1996 when the dairy boom was just beginning, with 70% of the increase in Canterbury, Otago and Southland.
But Mr Curtis said there were many examples of how intensive land use could be managed to significantly reduce its footprint and he believed Dr Wright should take more note of recent innovations in land use management.
All parties in the primary sector acknowledged current and future land use needed to be carefully managed if the economy was to grow and water quality was to be maintained and improved.
New Zealand needed to spend its resources on innovative solutions, ''not beating itself up'', and the question to be tackled was how to increase farming while improving water quality, Mr Curtis said.
DairyNZ strategy and investment leader for sustainability Rick Pridmore said efforts were well under way to address the concerns raised by Dr Wright.
DairyNZ, on behalf of dairy farmers, had increased its investment in the environment by more than 60% to $11 million this financial year.
Fonterra group director co-operative affairs Todd Muller said the dairy co-operative and its farmers had undertaken a significant amount of work to protect waterways, but recognised there was more to do.
Fonterra was working with scientists and primary industry organisations on improving nutrient use and providing farmers with information to manage farming systems efficiently.
Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy said it was important to note the modelling in the report was based on trends between 1996 and 2008.
It did not take into account the water quality initiatives introduced by the Government since then, as well as the increasing actions by regional councils, iwi, the farming sector and other water users to better manage water.
Fish and Game New Zealand chief executive Bryce Johnson said the report vindicated Fish and Game's strong stance through its Dirty Dairying campaign against the industry and the urgent need to ''clean up its act''.
It showed intensive agriculture had gone too far and was ''out of control''.
The dairy sector had failed to gain a ''social licence'' to operate and it was long overdue for the industry to be moved on to a mandatory environmentally sustainable footing, Mr Johnson said.
