Critique of NZ dairy expansion

Greenpeace has criticised the extent of climate-damaging dairy conversion in New Zealand with an activity in the central North Island in which 30 volunteers are currently replanting over 1000 trees on land cleared for dairy farming. The land being is leased by the state owned Landcorp.

“Landcorp is overseeing the conversion of huge tracts of land from forestry to intensive dairy,” says Greenpeace executive director Bunny McDiarmid. “Dairy conversion is at an all time high and it is a major contributor to our greenhouse gas emissions. Converting forestry to make way for cows is effectively a ‘double whammy’ for the climate as it destroys forests and replaces it with dairy farming which is the most greenhouse gas intensive form of land use”.
Government figures project that the number of dairy cows in New Zealand will increase by up to 21% by 2010. Greenpeace is calling for a halt to the expansion of dairying until it can be shown to be more sustainable.