NZ is an echo chamber in which environmentalists and farmers hear themselves repeatedly, often without an international perspective or frame of reference.
“We think that if we solve our problems we are solving the world’s problems but we are a long way ahead of most countries.”
Lewis attended the Dairy Sustainability Framework workshop ahead of the annual International Dairy Federeation’s World Dairy Summit in Daejeon, South Korea.
Fonterra, Open Country and Miraka are company members of the Dairy Sustainability Framework but DairyNZ is not among the many country members.
Lewis said the Dairy Tomorrow strategy in NZ is world-leading and we are admired for getting all dairy companies, industry organisations and farmers to sign up.
“We also lead on grass-to-milk, environmental technologies and climate change response.
“But we don’t have a framework to use those achievements in our product stories or get recognition through world bodies like the United Nations.
“If we joined the framework our farmers wouldn’t have to do anything more, just feed our information in.
“While we have to respond to environmental challenges and, where necessary, lead, let’s not bankrupt ourselves for very little gain.”
If, for example, NZ cut dairy cow numbers that would be important to us but minute in the scale of worldwide dairying.
Lewis heard the dairy organisations of other countries claim sustainability credentials through grazing their cows three hours a day and 120 days of the year.
He also heard of persistent employment problems because of the long hours, hard work, mental strain and increasing urbanisation.
“We are implementing plans and putting the runs on the board but we are not showcasing it.”
Lewis said NZ dairy farmers already have long compliance lists and he doesn’t want to add anything more.
The Dairy Sustainability Framework is based in Brussels and its parents are the Global Dairy Agenda for Action and the Global Forum of Agricultural Research.
DairyNZ chief executive Tim Mackle, who also attended the summit, said DSF is a great initiative and NZ was involved in its formation.
There is scope for Dairy Tomorrow to formally engage with DSF when the value in doing so is shown to be real.
Mackle also presented on the NZ response to the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak and said other counties are very interested in what is being tried by way of public-private partnership.
Another presentation said changing to a vegan diet is not more environmentally friendly.
Dutch dairy organisation NZO research director Stephan Peters said life-cycle assessments of different diets show it is theoretically possible to reduce household carbon emissions by 2.9 tonnes annually by adopting a vegan diet.
But the lost calories and nutrients need to be replaced by consuming a larger quantity of plant-based products and they also have carbon footprints.
Eliminating nutrient-rich dairy foods necessitates eating more than the recommended daily intake of fruits and vegetables to get the required calcium, for example.
The environmental effects of the considerable amounts of substitute foods results in almost the same carbon emissions as dairy, Peters said.
An optimal diet produces 3.67kg of carbon emissions daily while a dairy-free diet produces 3.53kg of carbon emissions, which is a negligible difference.
