Jail dirty farmers
Jail call for farmers who pollute
Polluting farmers should be jailed, says Environment Minister Trevor Mallard. He told the Water and Wastes Association conference in Christchurch this week that he supported tougher sentences and even jail for serious water polluters. Exporters who continued to pollute or mismanage water and broke the rules were undermining their own products and the "valuable New Zealand brand". "Regional councils in particular need to be a lot tougher as far as the standards are concerned, and more importantly the enforcement of the standards," Mallard said. "Far too often these days, farmers not always farmers treat fines under the Resource Management Act as a cost of the business. We should prosecute individuals rather than companies change the focus from a fine-based system to the possibility of imprisonment."
The Federated Farmers President has called Mallard’s view on polluting farmers as ‘extreme’ – this coming from an organization who was headed by Charlie Pederson who only a couple of years ago described the environmental movement as a war against humanity, yes the Federated Farmers know all about ‘extreme’ views. Mallard is right but misplaced, it isn’t your humble Framer who is the problem it is the mass production intensive industrial farming companies (usually Fonteera’s biggest suppliers) who are the polluters who constantly get let off the hook for their pollution because of their financial clout.
posted by Bomber @ 6:55 am
12 comments
12 Comments:
lol tread carefully Trev....Labour doesn't need more bad news and nothing gets the attention more than picketing farmers lol
So for all your frothing and braying about how prisons are evil and just make criminals worse, you are now happy to throw farmers in clink for *GASP* polluting.
Do you actually belive that stuff you write about prisons or are you just feeling particularly pissy about farmers this morning?
Mallard is a fucking joke, this is attantion seeking on his part pure ans simple.
So for all your frothing and braying about how prisons are evil and just make criminals worse, you are now happy to throw farmers in clink for *GASP* polluting.
Where did I say throw Farmers in prison Anon?
Do you actually belive that stuff you write about prisons or are you just feeling particularly pissy about farmers this morning?
Anon, show me where I said I wanted to throw Farmers in Prison, my EXACT words are Mallard is right but misplaced, it isn't the humble Farmer it is the intensive farming techniques of the big companies that are most polluting and those polluters are getting away with it. The toughening up needs to be directed at those polluters.
Mallard said:"Polluting farmers should be jailed"
You said: " Mallard is right but misplaced..."
So you don't want humble farmers imprisoned, but you do want industrial farmers jailed?
You also said: "it is the mass production intensive industrial farming companies (usually Fonteera’s biggest suppliers) who are the polluters"
So us some evidence of this - that it is the bigger farming companies who do the most polluting.
From everything I have seen the bigger farming companies know they are being watched like hawks so they make every effort not to pollute.
On top of this the pollution is usually cause by waste e.g. excessive fertilising - which larger farmers don't do as it eats into profits too much to be unnecessarily fertilising.
Or poorly maintianed effluent ponds - which again the bigger farmers avoid.
Your biggest polluters are old school guys how just don't give a damn how much cow shed run-offs go into water ways, or new farmers - often sheep-to-dairy converts - who don't know about managing fertilisers properly.
If you bothered to do some research you would know a bit more about Fonterras initiatives to have less fertiliser used and promote cleaner and organic farming. Beleive it or not, it isn't in Fonterra's interests to pollute and waste.
He didn't say he support jailing farmers, only he supported tougher sentences against large polluters and as for your claim that it isn't those large intensive farming companies who pollute, what nonesense.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0706/S00339.htm
Steady on guys....if Tumeke was made to deal in facts and facts alone there'd be nothing left. Its like a soap opera...you leave your mind at the door and step into fantasy land.
He didn't say he support jailing farmers,
The title of this post is "Jail dirty farmers"
The link to the Stuff article says "Jail call for farmers who pollute"
The article starts with Trevor Mallard saying "Polluting farmers should be jailed"
After his obligatory bitchiness about Federated Farmers is out of the way, Bomber starts off by saying "Mallard is right but misplaced"
At NO point does Bomber say that farmers shouldn't be jailed only that Trevor should go after the bigger farming companies.
...as for your claim that it isn't those large intensive farming companies who pollute,
I never made any such claim, brush up on your reading comprehension skills, idiot.
Finally, you link to a Greenpeace press release full of half-baked assertions and baseless assumptions as if this is some sort hard evidence of wide scale pollution by farmers. Grow up.
The title of this post is "Jail dirty farmers"
That's because the article is called Jail Call for Dirty Farmers.
The link to the Stuff article says "Jail call for farmers who pollute"
Thats because the story is called, "Jail call for farmers who pollute".
The article starts with Trevor Mallard saying "Polluting farmers should be jailed" After his obligatory bitchiness about Federated Farmers is out of the way, Bomber starts off by saying "Mallard is right but misplaced"
Right, so no where did I actually say I wanted Farmers jailed, I agree with what Mallard is trying to do but it is misplaced and tough action should be taken against not the humble Farmer but the large companies using intensive farming techniques.
At NO point does Bomber say that farmers shouldn't be jailed only that Trevor should go after the bigger farming companies.
That's right Trevor should be going after the big polluters, NOT jailing Farmers.
Now YOU make the claim that it is the little Farmer and not the big companies causing pollution when that is simply untrue. For someone who angrily demanded I do some research, perhaps you need to brush up on the comprehension skills...
Tougher fines urged for farming polluters
Fish & Game has called on Fonterra to stop taking milk from the country's largest family dairying business after it copped its fourth conviction for illegal dairy discharges. Taharua Ltd pleaded guilty and was fined $37,500 in the Environment Court in Napier on Friday. The Green Party, however, says that though this is the biggest fine yet in New Zealand for a single dairy effluent discharge, it is not enough. The party is now calling for bigger fines for rural polluters.
CraFarm Group owns 80 per cent of Taharua, one of 14 farms in the central North Island and Waikato in which Allan Crafar, his wife Elizabeth and brother Frank have interests. In late 2006, the 2700-hectare farm 28 kilometres southeast of Taupo discharged 188 cubic metres of effluent a day from its dairy shed - well over the 80 cubic metres permitted. Fish & Game spokesman Bryce Johnson said the Crafars' record was a disgrace.
$35,000 fine for dirty dairying upheld
A big family-owned dairy farm which blamed a sharemilker for a stream of effluent flowing across its Reporoa property has had its appeal against a $35,000 fine turned down by the High Court.
Justice Lynton Stevens said in his judgment that the penalty imposed on the Crafar family-owned Plateau Farms in the Rotorua District Court was entirely appropriate, given the scale of the illegal effluent management during 2004-05. Waikato Regional Council said yesterday that Judge Stevens found that a thick stream of effluent running into a neighbouring property because of an overflowing storage sump, and poor irrigation practices led to substantial ponding of effluent and large amounts of thick effluent sludge sitting on paddocks.
And to just reinforce my argument that it is the large companies, note how the above tried arguing that it was BECAUSE they are a large landowner that they were being picked on...
Farmer fined over effluent 'picked on for our size'
A corporate dairy farmer fined $35,000 for illegally discharging effluent says he has been picked on unfairly by local authorities. Plateau Farms was found guilty in Rotorua District Court of illegally discharging effluent on a company farm at Reporoa. The company pleaded guilty to a representative charge of unlawful discharge of contaminants to land. It appealed unsuccessfully in the High Court that the fine was excessive.
Plateau Farms owner Allan Crafar said Environment Waikato regional council, which brought the charges after discovering the extent of the pollution in late 2004, was picking on the company because it was a big landowner.
It's stupid to send more people to jail. Jail should be for violence and the most egregious fraud only.
A fine of twice the value of the farm would seem to me to be the way to deal with repeated offenders - e.g. they lose the farm, go bankrupt and have a huge debt for ever.
I think people would be a lot more careful if that was on the cards.
Long-term effluent solutions take time to perfect. Check out this article about what this large-scale farmer has integrated into their management systems: http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/business/1760238/Tankers-solve-effluent-problem
When you run any farming operation there are inevitably mistakes that happen. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the bigger the farm, the bigger effect the mistake will have on the environment. Unfortunately, when you operate within an economic system that encourages large scale anything, this will be the outcome. I have personal, hands on experience of the Crafar's practices in farming and I can assure you that I doubt anyone is as vigilant about effluent management as they are. They have spent and continue to spend millions of dollars on maintaining and upgrading their systems. It is a shame that they have been targeted like this and their name tarnished due to a few ACCIDENTAL problems with their systems. As for imprisonment, anyone with half a brain (obviously NOT Trevor Mallard) would see that if prison worked for any crime, we wouldn't need them! And do I need to point out what an idiot he is for undermining the very industry that keeps him, among countless other useless politicians, in a job? Surely a constructive approach to this situation is the best way. Such as encouraging research and development of systems that are more effective and less likely to fail. If it is in the nations interest to keep the clean green image, surely a little tax payer money toward developing and trialing some of the innovations that are already out there wouldn't go astray (need I remind you how much the farming industry contributes to tax in the first place?). And as for people suggesting bigger fines. Ask yourself this: If you take the money out of the hands of the farmer and into the hands of regional councils, how does that help the industry? I've seen alot more fancy regional council buildings and flash regional council cars than I have evidence of them helping the industry. Surely an incentive to develop or improve on farm systems is a better idea? How about a compulsory system upgrade instead of a fine?
And before we get to wound up over the effect of dairy farms on the country, how about cities? Who gave who the consent to destroy perfectly good land and build ugly, concrete structures, roads, sewage systems, etc etc etc. What do these things actually achieve other than encouraging more and more people to lose their ability to grow their own food and survive without this false security that has only been built in the past 100 years. As a species we are fast losing sight of what is truly important for our survival, let alone our continued advancement.
I think it is time to think outside the box for a solution. The failure of laws and governmental or council systems spreads far beyond effluent management on dairy farms. Just look at our overpopulated jails, inflating crime rates and the drop in all kinds of quality of life throughout New Zealand and the world. Not to mention the slavery, starvation and pollution around the world. Its time for a paradigm shift of a monumental scale. My advice to anyone reading this is to go and do some research about the systems you support and stand for. Stop and take a step back and look at what is important to you and what is you are actually contributing to the NEEDS of the people and the planet. If this last section has you a little lost, here are some sites that may give you a starting point. I suggest starting at the top and working down.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6736722752013377089
www.evolvingrhythms.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c8an2XZ3MU
www.zeitgeistmovie.com
I will leave you with 3 quotes I hold close to me.
Only after the last tree has been cut down,
Only after the last fish has been caught,
Only after the last river has been poisoned,
Only then will you realize, you cannot eat MONEY.
It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.
We must be the change we wish to see in the world.
In regards to the Crafar Family, I would like to point people in the direction of their website.
http://www.crafarms.co.nz
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