★ 16 June 2022: The Little River ECO-Collective gathered in front of ECAN, the head offices of Environment Canterbury in Christchurch, to present the 2 petitions huge 2000-cattle feed barn with well over 3000 signatures. Green MP Eugenie Sage and Labour MP Tracey McLellan will attend the event in support.
Please continue to help build the pressure to put this issue on the agenda. Write to ECAN to express your concern about the lack of appropriate action – ask ECan to make the Wongan Hills feedlot application ‘publicly notifiable’, and involve us in the decision making: email Chief Executive of ECan:
[email protected] ★
Te Waihora (Lake Ellesmere) is the largest lake in Canterbury/Waitaha and one of the most important wetland habitats in New Zealand, providing homes for numerous birds, plants and invertebrates.
Yet it’s also heavily polluted from the runoff of surrounding farms with some of the country’s highest concentrations of sediment, nitrogen and phosphorus. Over-allocation of water to irrigation schemes contributes to the problem.
It could get much worse with a proposal for industrial farms and thousands of cattle right on its shores.
Christchurch City Council has granted consent for company Wongan Hills to build two 200m-long indoor barns, or feedlots, holding up to 1000 steers each, raised for beef, in Kaituna Valley, Banks Peninsula.
The sheds breach several district plan rules, including those for maximum building footprint which is meant to be 300m². The barns and buildings will cover 24,330m².
These proposed feedlots to be installed on Te Waihora land are utterly unacceptable. The lake already suffers enormously from pollution from current farming practices.
Feedlots are a style of intensive indoor farming that is focused on increased production from animals, in larger numbers, in smaller spaces. Feedlots risk spreading disease and the huge amounts of waste pollute waterways, soil and plant life.
Animal farming is responsible for a large part of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions and these intensive feedlots do not align with the way Aotearoa should be responding to the current climate crisis. This kind of intensive farming has no place in Aotearoa, and especially Canterbury. We should be moving to regenerative and organic agricultural systems that work with the environment, not against it.
We strongly oppose this and call on the Council to throw it out immediately. There should be no chance of a consent from Environment Canterbury.
[Image: Stuff]
Controversial farmer’s next venture: A feedlot
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/pro/controversial-farmers-next-venture-a-feedlot
Whakaora Te Waihora
https://ngaitahu.iwi.nz/environment/te-waihora/whakaora-te-waihora/
Land, air, water Aotearoa - Te Waihora/Lake Ellesmere water quality
https://www.lawa.org.nz/explore-data/canterbury-region/lakes/te-waihoralake-ellesmere/#:~:text=Average%20water%20quality.,Mesotrophic%20lake%20conditions.
How to fix Te Waihora/Lake Ellesmere
https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/how-to-fix-te-waihora-lake-ellesmere/
Why you should give a damn about feedlots
https://thespinoff.co.nz/food/23-08-2018/why-you-should-give-a-damn-about-feedlots
