Source: Federated Farmers
Federated Farmers say Environment Canterbury’s decision to declare a ‘nitrate emergency’ is a shameless political stunt that won’t help anyone.
“It’s incredibly disappointing to see Environment Canterbury (ECan) playing these kinds of petty political games,” says Federated Farmers vice president Colin Hurst.
“Declaring a nitrate emergency isn’t helpful or constructive. All it will do is create unnecessary panic and drive a wedge between our urban and rural communities.
“I think most reasonable Cantabrians will see the declaration for what it is: a cynical and alarmist stunt from a group of councillors trying to score points during the local body elections.”
Hurst says ECan’s decision is divisive and risks undermining the good work done by farmers, councils, iwi and the wider community over the last few decades.
“What I want to know is why this is suddenly an “emergency” for ECan? The data shows the trends have been consistent for decades. That just goes to show it’s all politically motivated.
“Nobody is disputing we have an issue with nitrates in Canterbury. It’s a longstanding challenge that our community have been aware of, and working on, for some time now.
“To suddenly come out and call it an emergency is political theatre.”
He says the situation hasn’t been helped by extreme anti-farming activist groups like Greenpeace spreading harmful misinformation about nitrates.
“Greenpeace have made a lot of false claims trying to link nitrates in drinking water to colon cancer – but that’s just politically motivated misinformation.
“It’s outright scaremongering and simply doesn’t line up with what the credible experts are saying on this issue.”
Federated Farmers say New Zealanders should take their health advice from medical professionals, not environmental activists with an anti-farming agenda.
“The nitrate situation in Canterbury is incredibly complex and hasn’t arisen overnight – and unfortunately it won’t be solved overnight either,” Hurst says.
“Despite a huge amount of work already done to improve the situation, it takes a long time for nitrate-rich water to work its way through the groundwater system.
“Farmers are stepping up and showing real leadership on this issue. It’s just a shame we aren’t seeing the same kind of leadership from our elected councillors.
“Instead of showing real leadership on this issue, ECan councillors are grandstanding, scaremongering and acting like political activists.
“That kind of behaviour is divisive, dishonest, and does absolutely nothing to actually address the issue. Canterbury deserves much better leadership than what we’ve seen today.”
More information about what the experts are saying:
– Bowel Cancer NZ: “The weight of evidence strongly suggests that nitrates in drinking water do not cause bowel cancer, and it is not currently understood how dietary nitrates could cause bowel cancer”. Read more here.
– Office of the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor: “In recent years, an association between nitrate levels in drinking-water supplies and bowel cancer risk in adults has been identified in some overseas studies, but the evidence base is not conclusive with respect to whether the relationship is causal or coincidental”. Read more here.
– ECAN Director of Science Dr Tim Davie: “For drinking water, the New Zealand Drinking Water Standards set a Maximum Acceptable Value (MAV) of 50 milligrams per litre (mg/l) for nitrate, which is equivalent to 11.3 mg/l nitrate-nitrogen. This is based on the World Health Organisation (WHO) standard. A 2018 review of the science behind the WHO standard, which included the Danish study, concluded there was not enough evidence to change those limits. Read more here.
– The World Health Organisation: “There is no clear evidence of carcinogenicity from nitrate per se in humans.” Read more here.