Shut down Crafar Farms now

Photos / interest.co.nz

This week we at interest.co.nz broke a story about animal neglect at one of Crafar Farms. The details are here for those who haven't seen it yet, including the shocking video of calves dehydrating to death because of poor management.

It's a bit off the beaten track for us. We tend to focus on interest rates, the economy, banks, finance companies and house prices. But we can't ignore Fonterra because it remains a dominant feature of our economic landscape and our national reputation as a clean, green 100% pure place to play and grow food.

That reputation is now in danger and I'm not sure Fonterra, MAF, the government and the banks who funded the Crafar Farms debacle understand just how dangerous it is.

The video we obtained is an explosive indictment of how the biggest privately owned supplier of milk to Fonterra treats its animals. All it would take is for this video to be shown on BBC or ITV or CBS for Fonterra's reputation and New Zealand's 100% pure reputation to be in tatters. 

MAF's performance has been woeful. It was informed of this neglect on Saturday September 5 and took nearly 3 days to visit the farm. Before it arrived it tipped off the Crafars it was coming. The workers on the farm who hadn't bothered or been trained to feed the calves then went around bludgeoning the sick and dying to death with hammers to avoid MAF seeing the worst of the near-dead calves jammed into this muddy shed. As it was, MAF still shot dozens more calves when it arrived on the afternoon of Monday September 7.

According to Allan Crafar, MAF's inspector then said he would not be prosecuting. MAF's line is different now because the scandal has become public, saying it is 'still under investigation'. I have been chasing MAF for weeks. It was complacent about and, in my view, complicit in the neglect of these animals. MAF have known about the Crafars for years and have received numerous complaints. Yet it has done virtually nothing to fix the situation. MAF is an enabler of factory farming in New Zealand, aiming to help it produce more and get bigger, regardless of the cost.

The numerous emails and messages on other blogs from those on the ground in New Zealand's biggest dairy farms suggest this is a more endemic problem to our factory farms than the comments from Federated Farmers and Fonterra about 'bad apples' might indicate.

Fonterra's inaction is also very disappointing. It has known about Crafar Farms for years. Crafar's rabid approach to environmental protections and his many prosecutions are legion in the industry. He was so notorious he was pushed off Fonterra's Shareholder Council in 2007 after 6 years. He has already been prosecuted for animal neglect once before. Crafar was fined NZ$200 after one of his farm managers allowed cows to wander into a pine forest and starve to death.

Yet Fonterra still accepted Crafar Farms milk and will continue to accept its milk unless Crafar is prosecuted AND then refuses to fix the problems relating to that prosecution. Would Nike take the same approach if it found one of its contract shoe suppliers in Vietnam was mistreating workers? Of course not.

Crafar's banks are equally as guilty of neglect. Crafar describes himself as a simple farmer who's idea of business planning is a wall calendar that he tears off at the end of every month and throws away. Crafar Farms has expanded too fast and with too much debt for its managers to handle. Yet Crafar's banks Westpac, Rabobank and PGG Wrightson Finance fed his addiction with little real due diligence. Anyone who has spent 45 minutes talking to Allan Crafar, as I did this week, would know he should not be in charge of a NZ$200 million plus business.

MAF, Fonterra and Crafar's banks should step in now to take over the management of Crafar Farms. Crafar is already trying to sell its farms to repay its debts that it can't service. It is already close to defaulting on its debts. Westpac, which has most of the debt, should step in and appoint receivers with the support of Fonterra, who should help appoint temporary managers. The government should prod and broker a solution like this. At the extreme, it should appoint statutory managers.

The other option is inaction and hoping it will go away. That is not an option in a world of YouTube, where we placed the video.

We cannot defend our 100% pure image if we continue to allow Crafar Farms to be one of the biggest suppliers to our most internationally prominent exporter of food.

Waiting and hoping and buying more advertising is no solution.

Top: The footage is a shocking indictment of how Crafar Farms treats its animals. Photos / interest.co.nz