Twelfth Global Studies Conference

Abstract

Driven by the pursuit of profit and global market forces, there is a trend among farmers of converting traditional practices with historically low biodiversity impacts to high-intensity farming with extreme biodiversity impacts. This study examines how these forces caused prices for dairy products in Asia (China in particular) to rise significantly in recent decades. Consequently, many New Zealand dairy farmers have converted traditional dryland sheep and beef farms with fairly benign impact on biodiversity to intensive irrigated dairy operations with serious deleterious effects on biodiversity (i.e., excessive siltation, nutrient overload, high bacteria counts). Many consider water quality in many areas of New Zealand to be in crisis because of these changes. Additionally, land conversions to dairy often involve removal of forested lands causing a loss of carbon entrapment negatively affecting targets for C02 emissions. The root cause is increased demand on a global scale precipitating increased supply on a national scale without due consideration of how this affects biodiversity and quality of life in local communities. Sachs states that biodiversity includes the variability of life within a species, the diversity of species within an ecosystem and their various relationships, and the diversity of species across ecosystems (Sachs, 2015 pp. 448-449). Biodiversity impacts from farming can be viewed at the farm-ecosystem level and on a broader regional landscape scale. As ecosystems comprised of water, air, soil, plant and animal life, often connected by waterways, do not recognize national boundaries, the impacts of farming cross national borders. Everyone lives downstream from someone.