Everyone deserves fresh, healthy food grown in a way that’s good for our climate, rivers, wildlife and communities.
Over the past two decades, farming in New Zealand has changed. Family farms are steadily being replaced by corporate, monoculture farms, with dairy cows crammed into every corner.
Industrial dairying is making our climate, our water and our communities sick. Agriculture is New Zealand’s biggest climate polluter, largely thanks to all those dairy cows. Our rivers and lakes are in the worst state they’ve ever been. Even our drinking water is at risk.
The way New Zealand farms affects all of us. We’re standing together to transform agriculture and shift Aotearoa to to regenerative farming that works with nature, not against it. Read on to learn more.
Simply put, New Zealand has too many cows. All those cows give off a whole lot of greenhouse gases that heat the climate, like methane and nitrous oxide. And that’s not to mention the climate pollution from fertiliser and transport in the agriculture sector.
New Zealand uses almost half a million tonnes of synthetic nitrogen fertiliser ever year in order to promote rapid grass growth. When applied to land, synthetic nitrogen fertiliser releases a potent greenhouse gas called nitrous oxide – which contributes more to global heating than our entire domestic aviation industry.
Industrial dairying in NZ relies on imported feed like palm kernel expeller (PKE) to feed more cows than the land can sustain. NZ’s use of PKE supports destructive players in the palm oil industry that are displacing indigenous peoples and local communities, killing wildlife and causing fires that create a toxic haze.
We’re already seeing the shocking effects of the climate crisis. Places like Australia and California have faced raging wildfires. Storms and other destructive weather events are set to become more frequent and intense.
Even if we stopped using all fossil fuels tomorrow, we’d still be on the path to global heating because of the way we’re farming.
But we also need to make sure everyone has access to fresh, healthy food grown in a way that’s good for our climate, rivers, wildlife and communities.
Farming can be part of the climate solution, but we need to make some changes.
We’re calling on the Government to phase out synthetic nitrogen fertiliser for good. There’s a cap on synthetic nitrogen fertiliser, but it’s set very high. We need everyone to tell the Government that we won’t stand for this continued pollution of our rivers.
Add your name now
There are farmers across New Zealand that are going against the grain to farm regeneratively. They’re drawing on Indigenous wisdom, building soil and encouraging diversity as they grow great food, heal the land and support their communities. Join us to call on the Government to invest $1 billion in shifting Aotearoa to regenerative farming.
Join the call
Imported feed like PKE is propping up the practice of keeping more cows than the land can feed alone. And that’s driving the climate crisis here, while propping up destructive players in the palm industry abroad. We’re calling on the Government to phase out imported feed like PKE – will you add your name?
