Dairy sympathy

I have every sympathy with Linda Pocock’s letter (Apr 17). I find the idea of our giving away some of the best water available on the planet to foreign interests, who wrap it up in a highly toxic plastic bottle because 1) they want to profit from it and 2) they have stuffed up their own water, just appalling.

And we seem powerless to stop it.

I have little sympathy also for those that sell tobacco. But smoking is a ridiculous habit and those who spend a fortune on it on one hand and die of it on another, well it’s not as if they weren’t warned. No sympathy there either.

But as a cropping farmer I do have some sympathy for the dairy industry, not just because I sell to them, but because of an injustice.

The National Government a while ago tore up ECan with their own agenda to proliferate the Canterbury Plains with water whilst at the same time declaring that water quality had improved considerably. This was done by lowering the standard by which it was measured.

It was that bad, that simple and that bloody brazen. And the dairy farmers are getting it in the neck for it.

A little unfair as it is not entirely their fault but rather that of a short-sighted Nick Smith whitewash.

I would like to reassure Linda that the dairy industry is making moves to address its environmental problems.

There are opportunities both financially and altruistically for the dairy industry to go a little greener each and every year and the general feeling I get is that they want to.

Give it a little time and I’m sure we will find a way to produce white milk considerably greener.

Andrew Luddington, Tai Tapu