For New Zealand, being a small island nation has its advantages. New Zealand is fortunate in having one of the cleanest environments in the world. New Zealanders value their environment; protecting and improving it is a key government objective. Not only does a clean environment make the country a more pleasant place in which to live, but it testifies to the safety of the foods produced here.

Grazing animals are raised on farms which are as close as possible to their "natural" habitats, where they harvest their own food and have minimal interaction with humans, machines and chemicals.

ANIMAL HEALTH

With more than 50 million farm animals behind fences on livestock farms New Zealand has very good reasons to look after animal health and welfare.

The predominant feeding regime of renewable grass, along with fresh water and air and lives spent wholly outdoors, gives New Zealand farm animals a very healthy basis for existence. New Zealand has been free from all of the worst animal diseases, such as foot-and-mouth and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).

However, pasture does harbour the juvenile stages of various internal and external parasites, which, if left untreated when they enter the gut, will rob the animal of nutrients and cripple the metabolism.

Specialised chemicals for endo-parasite and ecto-parasite control are used sparingly, because of their cost and labour requirement and because of the possibility of parasiteresistance developing from over-use. Some farmers are also breeding for resistance in the host animal to parasites, especially the fungal spores on pastures which cause facial eczema. Plant breeders, also, are developing grass varieties which do not contain the fungi which lead to grass staggers in sheep and cattle, for instance, and are also trying to breed in resistance to insect and disease attacks.

Because parasites are often pests of only one farm animal species, other species can be used to "clean up" pastures before the target species begins grazing, or those pastures containing the parasites can be avoided during the "hot" season for infections.

New Zealand pastoralists know a great deal about the interactions between animals, pastures, pests and parasites and agricultural science has been focused on this area for decades.

Not everything that a grazing animal needs for good health is available from grasses, legumes and herbs. Some soils and farms have trace element deficiencies – copper, cobalt, iodine and selenium – so these must be added by way of supplements to pasture or directly to the animal. At high-stress times of the year, for instance at calving, cows may also need more calcium and magnesium. Clover-rich pastures may also give rise to bloat, which can be prevented by administering anti-foaming oil.

New Zealand has also developed effective treatments for many other livestock diseases and some products which improve the reproductive and physiological performance of farm animals. However, these are all used carefully and mostly remedially, not just as routine applications to boost production. When New Zealand animals are killed, the meats and by-products are shown to have a very high health status, along with excellent levels of good fatty acids and cholesterol, and low levels of intramuscular fat.

Chemical residues are very low and farmers can be fined for sending any animal for slaughter within the withholding period of chemical treatments.

The development of specialised equipment has gone hand-in-hand with new chemicals and treatments. For example, animal remedies can be delivered into the stomachs of the animals with drench guns, released slowly over time from ingested boluses or capsules, or from subcutaneous pellets, and even applied externally down the back with "pour-ons" and sprays. The common factor in all of these new treatment methods are longer control periods from lower doses, along with strict observance of withholding periods, within which the animal cannot be slaughtered for food or the wool harvested for clothing. New treatments are thoroughly trialled and ethically approved before licensing.

In animal health much more emphasis is now placed on the role of proactive/preventative management, such as faecal egg counting, integrated grazing management and running different aged stock classes to minimise the use of drenches and the costs.

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ANIMAL WELFARE

The ethical basis for the care and welfare of animals is complex and constantly changing. Throughout the world consumers have become more sensitive to the way animals are cared for, and New Zealand farmers, processors and exporters are responding to those concerns.

New Zealand's heritage is closely bound to farming and animals, and New Zealand has a strong animal welfare focus. The extensive pastoral farming systems used by New Zealand sheep, beef, dairy, deer and goat farmers have advantages for animal welfare.

Because there is no need to confine farm animals, their freedom of movement is rarely restricted, and they live a more "natural" life than livestock in countries with less favourable climates.

All farm animals in New Zealand are protected under the Animal Welfare Act 1999, which contains strong penalties for violations. Twenty detailed codes of practice are already in place and are being strengthened by new legislation. More codes are being developed by the Animal Welfare Advisory Committee, a body of representatives from the farming community, consumer and animal rights advocates and government. Such codes cover farm practices and management procedures and include care of working animals, transport of animals and care of animals at processing premises.

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FIVE FREEDOMS

The codes take note of the "five freedoms" recognised internationally as basic requirements. These are:

• Freedom from thirst, hunger and malnutrition

• Freedom from discomfort

• Freedom from disease, injury and pain

• Freedom from distress

• Freedom to display normal patterns of behaviour

When New Zealand's extensive grassland systems are measured against these freedoms, it can be seen that they favour good welfare.

In the New Zealand approach to animal welfare, pastoral practices are underpinned by science. What may appear to be tough on animals actually isn't, e.g. winter shearing with a cover comb has benefits for the breeding ewe and her lambs, particularly if they are twins; cow wintering systems and race surface design are responses to studies of animal stress and behaviour and devised animal-friendly solutions, while endophytefree ryegrass helps avoid ryegrass staggers, and breeding selections are now made for parasite/facial eczema tolerance.

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SUSTAINABILITY

An emerging concern around the world is the production of foods, fuels and fibres from a renewable base, without adverse effects on the environment, now called sustainable management.

Sustainability is about ensuring the self-cleansing capacity of the waters is not overwhelmed; the health and regenerative capacities of soils, fisheries, forests and other renewable systems is maintained; the stability of the climate systems is not disrupted; the risks arising from natural or man-made hazards or hazardous substances are kept at a low level; and the biodiversity of a region is not diminished.

The bottom line is that sustainability is not just about sustaining the capacity of humans to dominate and manipulate the environment for their unique benefit and survival. That is the sharp reality that New Zealanders have to grapple with – particularly in terms of how we sustain our unique animals and plants in a deforested land; in a land constantly being invaded by pests and weeds and in world markets where our fussy customers are increasingly expecting us to be able to demonstrate that our unique land-based production systems are not mining our ecologies.

New Zealand soils mostly evolved under forests, and tend to be thin and acidic with low levels of nitrogen, phosphorus and sulphur. Before they can grow productive pasture or crops, the soils must be improved with fertilisers and nitrogen-fixing plants (usually white clover). Over the past 100 years, New Zealand farmers have increased the area under soil-improving pasture from about 1-2 million hectares to about 14 million hectares. This was the greatest ecological change in New Zealand, from a forested land to a pastoral land and most of the change took place less than 150 years ago.

In many areas pastoral agriculture, with its dense grass coverings and fertiliser applications, has increased the organic carbon content of the soils, leading to improved water retention and nutrient cycling capacity. However, in some areas the soil quality has come under pressure from over-grazing or too much cultivation and too little soil replenishment.

Soil erosion has been a major problem on the fragile soils on steep country pastures. 

Nearly 10% of the country is subject to severe to extreme erosion, particularly in the Eastern North Island, Taranaki and the Southern Alps. Advances in sustainable land management are beginning to reduce the impact of erosion, but have not yet eliminated it completely.

But as agriculture is by far the largest land-use activity in New Zealand, it also has the greatest potential to damage the environment. Water use by agriculture and related industries is three times greater than the consumption by all households and industrial use combined. Livestock produce some 40 times the organic waste produced by the human population. In recent decades the agriculture sector has become increasingly aware of these problems, and significant research is now aimed at reducing the contribution of agriculture to pollution.

In common with many other countries, New Zealand has relied on natural or synthetic pesticides to maintain crop and animal production. Farmers have applied these pesticides responsibly, and monitoring of residue levels in food and groundwater shows that the levels are very low and pose no detectable health risk. Newer chemicals that target specific pests, decay quickly in the environment, and leave few residues are now preferred. Many farmers are reducing the overall amount of pesticides used through Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategies. IPM uses a range of management techniques to reduce the pest burden so that only minimal pesticide application is required for control. Today, all export kiwifruit and most of the export apple crop are produced using IPM techniques. Increasing numbers of farmers and growers are using organic or biodynamic production systems that attempt to avoid the use of synthetic pesticides altogether.

Concern for the environment has led over the past ten years to two important pieces of legislation: the Resource Management Act (RMA) and the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act (HSNO). These are among the most advanced environmental legislation in the world. The RMA is implemented by local governments and regional councils. The HSNO Act is implemented principally by the Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA New Zealand).

The RMA brings together laws that govern land, air and water, encompassing an ecosystem approach to environmental management. The key themes in the RMA are:

sustaining the potential of natural and physical resources; safeguarding the life-supporting capacity of air, water, soil and ecosystems; and avoiding, remedying, or mitigating any adverse effects on the environment.

ERMA New Zealand protects the environment and health and safety of people and communities by preventing or managing the adverse effects of hazardous substances (including agricultural chemicals) and new organisms (including genetically modified organisms). ERMA also considers applications to introduce hazardous substances or new organisms to New Zealand.

In addition to domestic legislation, New Zealand is a signatory to key international documents on the environment including:

• The Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol;

• The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD);

• The Montreal Protocol (ozone depleting substances);

• The Basel Convention on the Control of Transborder Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal.

Because New Zealand farmers and foresters are almost totally exposed to the world markets, the success of their industries depends on responding to market requirements. The demand of consumers for minimum pesticide use, for example, has prompted the move by New Zealand kiwifruit growers to the Kiwigreen production system, a low chemical production method, and increasingly to organic production. Fruit growers have also introduced low-chemical IPM strategies in pipfruit, summerfruit and grape production. Farmers using agricultural chemicals undergo a Growsafe training programme to learn about the safe handling, application and disposal of agricultural chemicals.

Other voluntary initiatives include quality assurance systems (QA) developed by the meat and dairy sectors, an integrated wine grape production scheme, and numerous community land management groups.