More support for organic dairying to be announced tomorrow?

More support for organic dairying to be announced tomorrow?

On Monday March 16 Fonterra will announce what additional support, if any, it intends to provide to its organic milk suppliers.

Organic Dairy and Pastoral Group Chair Bryan Clearwater (a dairy farmer from South Canterbury) is expecting it will be a lot more than it has provided in recent years.

"With organic whole milk powder worth two and a half times the value of non-organic, and demand for pure dairy products increasing rapidly, it's just common sense to put more effort in supporting farmers to convert to organic production", says Mr Clearwater.

"As well as being a sound economic choice, it's also a sound environmental choice. Research has shown that organic dairy farms leach 50% less nitrogen than non-organic farms, meaning they are much less polluting of soil and water, and (combined with better soil-building and conservation practices) put out half the amount of greenhouse gases."

"Organic dairy farms are also easy on the environment because the high value of the product means stocking rates can be lower than on non-organic farms" Mr Clearwater says.

"So for all these reasons, I'm picking that Fonterra will want to do well by New Zealand as well as its suppliers, and I am hoping that it will have new and effective proposals for supporting more farmers into organics to announce tomorrow."

ENDS

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