Given Fonterra is a near monopoly, don't these little escapades fall foul of Commerce Commission regulations designed to curb such bully-boy tactics? No wonder Chester was outraged. But, of course, the same pressures squeezing Fonterra are those chivvying farmers to force-feed paddocks and max out stock numbers to unsustainable levels. Why? Guess what - milksolid prices have done what they've always done and trended down after trending up. But the man holding the mortgage still wants his pound of flesh.
Come in, Dr Mike Joy - the acclaimed freshwater ecologist the dairy and tourist industries love to hate because he keeps spelling out inconvenient truths. Space doesn't permit here, but those interested should Google up "Dr Mike Joy NZ 100 percent pure illusion", and explore some of the associated links. Take a firm grip while you do so - it's a sobering journey.
It must be very depressing for dairy farmers, he says, to be getting up at 4am and working a 12-hour day in order to go further into debt, given that current returns don't cover costs.
In other words, many are slaving away for the privilege of expanding the returns to shareholders of the mainly Australian banks holding their debt ... while our environment cops the fallout.
In an October 9 article, Chester called for recognition of all the indirect jobs that flow from the agricultural sector. Too true - but longer term the real golden goose defining our brand and sustaining economic wellbeing across the board is a nation able to claim genuinely clean water, air and earth, with rich indigenous bio-diversity.
It's a question of balance and, at the moment, we're skinning our golden goose alive to an extent that will dumbfound future generations. "What on earth were you thinking?" they'll say. "We weren't," will be all we can reply. That's why half of it ended up in waterways poisoned with leached nitrates and phosphates, and vast tracts of the country were reduced to denuded, corrupted and eroded grass deserts.
One other interesting, evidence-based assertion of Dr Joy is that dairy farmers could reduce their herd size (and costs) by a third and still maintain present income.
Most attendant environmental degradation occurs from maxing out synthetic fertilisers and all the other additives, fodder and fuel necessary to achieve the extra 33.3 per cent production. But farmers are pressured by the suppliers of these products to maintain consumption in order that the latter can keep clipping their own meal tickets.
Another interesting statistic is that - based on experience with various now moribund lakes - it takes $37 worth of energy and resources to remove nitrates from waterways for each dollar spent on preventing the initial leaching. Without drastic action, our current stocking levels are massively debt-loading future generations of Kiwis if they wish to reclaim viable water quality and bio-diversity.
But I'm worried about the newly-radicalised Mr Borrows ...
The way things are going, he'll have his shirt off, bandana on, and flag in hand leading a march down the Avenue promoting hemp sandals as the best way to lessen environmental footprints. Good Lord, next he'll be in a kaftan and nutting off about climate change!
-Frank Greenall has a Master's degree in adult literacy and managed Far North Adult Literacy before moving to Wanganui.
