| Keep NZ food sources sustainable |
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| By Julie Kintzi |
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If you say no to factory farming now and focus on supporting local and sustainable farming for humans and animals your food sources will continue to be a vibrant, safe and reliable industry and a scion of New Zealand’s rich heritage -- writes United States citizen living in Seattle, Washington, an active volunteer advocate for preserving farmland. In my country farmland is rapidly disappearing especially in my home state. I returned to New Zealand recently after completing an exchange program 17 years ago at Lincoln University. It was during that time that I came to love and admire your country for its ability to be laid back and selectively modern at the same time. I noted that farming was very much part of the culture and I loved seeing the expanse of farmland as I explored your nation. And while visiting this time, it came to my attention that the stability of your farming culture that makes up so much of this country is in jeopardy with the potential infiltration of factory farms. Population growth and poor development planning is driving up the price of farmland such that it is more profitable to farmers to sell their land than to sell it for a reasonable rate to another farmer. Once this land is developed it will never return to farmland; it is lost forever. I do not want this future for New Zealand and this is why I am writing to you today. The other remarkable challenge to farms and farmers is the hovering presence of factory farms. We have had factory farms for many years in the U.S. and they have set up small local farmers to fail as well as the communities that surround them. Factory farms are only about making money for a select few they also drive down the cost of milk, eggs or meat and therefore push out small farmers who are in the business generally because they love to be in touch with the land and they want to make at least a reasonable living. Fair market competition is not possible between small farms and factory farms. Currently in the US we are debating how factory dairy operations are attempting to water down organic regulations in order to get into this growing market. Many small dairy farmers have lost their land or are barely getting by especially in the organic industry because large operations make so many cutbacks to quality meat or dairy production that they can sell at a lower price. Because of this factory organic production is driving farmers to sell their land because of lack of profit and factory farmers also pollute the surrounding communities especially cattle and pig operations. I write to you at this point to encourage to not travel down the path that the U.S. chose. We are attempting to back peddle largely with the insurgence of small organic farm as demonstrated in the websites below. -- Julie Kintzi http://www.factoryfarming.org.uk/ factory farming
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