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Leader's LetterOctober 2004
We are all in it togetherSadly, fewer and fewer people in our beautiful country realise that our standard of living depends to a very large extent on the prices we receive internationally for agriculture exports. We get strong lobby groups howling about the pollution of streams and rivers by farmed livestock, and Fish and Game and others demanding access across farmed privately owned land to lakes and rivers. Recreation is put ahead of producing food and earning income for our country. All the while the greatest polluters by far are humans, especially in towns and cities. If one examines the figures of what I call bugs, which essentially counts the amount of human waste of the most basic kind in water, you will find that. This is not a point the finger session, but we do need a bit of balance on these subjects. Yes, there is pollution from basic stock waste, fertilizer leaching etc. But the bug count goes through the roof immediately downstream from our towns and cities. This issue is not isolated to a few small settlements, but also major cities. My point is that too often we look for easy solutions and apportion blame when we are actually all at fault. It is not just farming that creates a problem for our streams and rivers, so let’s give the farmers a break and look at how we can all improve our environment. Doug Woolerton MP
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