‘Go sustainable, Go Organic’ - Greens tell Landcorp

The Green Party has today called for Government-owned farmer Landcorp to get serious about sustainability by committing to going organic on half of its farms by 2020.

“As the Government’s farming corporation, Landcorp should be leading the way in sustainable farming. That must include a real commitment to organic production,” Agriculture Spokesperson Nandor Tanczos says.

“It’s pretty clear that organic farming has lower environmental impact. What isn’t often understood is the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, in particular the carbon storing functions of healthy soil. Building humus instead of relying on synthetic fertilisers helps store considerable amounts of carbon in the soil, as does planting forests.

The Greens understand that Landcorp recently did a perfunctory study of an organic dairy herd in the Manawatu, finding it ‘financially neutral’. It seems they did not find this enough of an incentive to start organic dairy farming as a result.

“Conducting one study on organic dairy farming is lacklustre. First, many organic dairy farmers report increased profitability and given the low margins in sheep and beef farming and the premiums in organic meats, dairy may not demonstrate the best comparison in any case. Second, Landcorp doesn’t appear to have attached value to the considerable environmental and carbon benefits of conversion to organics.”

While the Greens have secured funding from the Government for initiatives such as an Organics Advisory Service, to assist farmers in converting to organics, Landcorp's lack of interest in environmentally-friendly organic production systems suggests the environment remains a ‘clip-on’.

As an example, Agriculture Minister Jim Anderton’s address to the Opening of the Landcorp National Farm Managers 20th Anniversary conference in June 2007 did not mention environmental responsibility at all, let alone organics, in spite of speaking about social responsibility.

“Landcorp's mission of ‘sustainable land use management’ is belied by large-scale deforestation for dairy conversion (a climate change double-whammy), a doubling in dairy production since 2002, a $20,000 prosecution in May this year for illegally discharging effluent, and disinterest in sustainable and profitable organic production.

“In the lead up to the national Organics Conference that I will be attending at Lincoln this weekend, I’m calling for Landcorp to go organic – that means 50 percent by 2020, in line with the 2020 vision for New Zealand as a whole,” says Nandor.