Sustainability Issues with the Milk Industry

Business Heritage, Culture and Sustainability

Business Heritage, Culture and Sustainability

(a)
A bottle of milk purchased in Christchurch is very like to be produced in the South island, either in Canterbury or Southland, which are the main dairying areas.
The production process for milk:
From the farm: milk is produced from grass, dairy cow’s graze on the grass and then they are milked twice a day using mechanical vacuum milking machines. The raw milk flows through stainless steel pipes to a refrigerated bulk milk tank. The milk is collected by road tanker every one to two days and taken to a milk processing plant.
The Separator: at the processing plant the first step is separation where the raw milk is passed through a separator, which spins 100 times per second to separate the milk from cream.
Standardisation: this is where cream is added back into the milk as some cows do not always produce the same amount of cream in their milk, also milk changes depending on the time of year.
Homogenisation: is the process where the milk is heated and pushed through a very small opening to stop the cream rising from the top this evens out the fat so it all tastes the same.
Pasteurisation: heats up the milk to almost boiling point to kill any bacteria and then the milk is cooled very fast.
Packaging: The final stage of production is the pumped in to cartons of plastic bottles and then sealed. (Fonterra, n.d, milking it section, para. 2)
The production of milk at a processing plant does not create many major issues relating to sustainable resources use and conservation. The key issues associated with the production of a bottle of milk are created at the start of production on dairy farms. Farmers engage in practices to enable the production of milk.
Cows can eat up to 70kg of grass per day (Fonterra, n.d, grazing section, para.1) which means a lot of land is needed for farming and chemical fertiliser is used on the soil to boost the growth of grass. Irrigation systems are also used to aid the growth of pastures to enable to dairy cows to continually graze so they can produce milk.
(b)
It is not environmentally sustainable to produce milk using the current method. One of the key issues is the use of chemical fertiliser. This fertiliser is used to increase the growth of pasture to allow farmers to maintain high numbers of stock per hector, which causes soil compaction and does not allow it to breath. The air spaces in the soil are very important as air and water travel through to the roots. Compacted soil leads to water logging, where bacteria that survive without oxygen flourish and create nitrous oxides (Greenpeace, 2010a, Chemical fertiliser - a corporate treadmill section, para.3)

The fertiliser destroys the living humus in the soil, the biology micro-organisms and minerals critical for plant health and performance. Humus is organic matter that has reached a point stability, where it will not break down any further and if conditions do not change, it may remain as it is for centuries. If the humus is not working, the soil becomes lifeless and hard as a result any that is put on top of the soil does not get absorbed instead runs off and pollutes water ways.

The fertilizer only creates growth of grass on the top of the soil and destroys the soils natural life cycle. Without this layer of natural humus, the chemicals in the fertilisers will eventually make its way down through the thin dead subsoil left behind, down into the earths underground fresh water tables. The chemical fertilisers destroys the nature’s own recycling system without earthworms and the soils micro-organisms that build humus decompose organic matter breakdown, manmade toxins protect plants and promote good soil structure, the soil erodes and can 't sustain life and becomes worthless. (Scoop, 2011, para.14)

Cows that graze on fertilized soil are also known to have digestion problems and other health issues.

(c) If this method of production is continued, there will be many future implications for the environment. The production of milk in Canterbury has many externalities as the cows on dairy farms produce a lot of pollution. The nutrient from farmland runs of into water ways and aquifers polluting the water which leads to algal blooms and degrades fish habitats. This is threating many native fresh water fish species and freshwater ecosystems (Forest and Bird, 2011, Freshwater species in freefall section, para.1).

The use of irrigation systems reduce water levels, by drying out springs, streams, lakes and rivers. Reduced water levels can block fish passage to and from the sea. The implications from this are again threatening ecosystems and using a lot of New Zealand’s water supply.

As the New Zealand dairy industry expands to meet demand overseas, more cows are breed which creates more greenhouse gases. Whens cows burp they emit methane into the atmosphere which is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide. (Greenpeace, 2010b, Agriculture and climate change section, para.1)

New Zealand’s agricultural sector contributes to half the greenhouse gas emissions, the use of chemical fertilisers, deforestation and gases emitted from cows are all factors that affect climate change. New Zealand’s clean and green image is also being tainted. (Greenpeace, 2010b, What happens if New Zealand agriculture doesn 't lift its game? section, para.1)

The production of milk not only affects New Zealand’s natural environment but also has contributed to the destruction of Indonesian and Malaysian rainforest. New Zealand has been importing palm-based animal feed for livestock to boost production.
In the last decade New Zealand’s demand for palm kernel animal feed has increased by 2000 per cent with the objective to produce more milk products without having to use more land. Fires are lit to clear the rain forests to make room for palm plantations, the conversion of carbon rich peatlands significantly contribute to climate change, creating 20 per cent of the global greenhouse gas emissions per year. The deforestation of these rain forests also destroys habitats for wildlife including animals such as orangutans and the sunatran tiger. If this method of process is to continue the future implications would increase climate change and species would to become extinct. (Greenpeace, 2010c, para.1)

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References

Fonterra.(n.d). The storey of milk. Retrieved October 23, 2011, from http://www.fonterra.com/wps/wcm/connect/fonterracom/fonterra.com/Our+Products/The+Story+Of+Milk/
Forest and Bird. (2011). Agriculture. Retrieved October 23, 2011, from http://www.forestandbird.org.nz/saving-our-environment/threats-and-impacts-/threats-impacts-agriculture
Greenpeace. (2010a). Intensive Farming. Retrieved October 20, 2011, from http://www.greenpeace.org/new-zealand/en/campaigns/climate-change/smart-farming/the-bad/
Greenpeace. (2010b). Smart Farming. Retrieved October 20, 2011, from http://www.greenpeace.org/new-zealand/en/campaigns/climate-change/smart-farming/
Greenpeace. (2010c). Fonterra implicated in rainforest destruction. Retrieved October 20, 2011, from http://www.greenpeace.org/new-zealand/en/news/fonterra-exposed/

Scoop. (2011), The Peoples Choice Party 2011 Campaign, Retrieved October 20, 2011, from http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1105/S00037/the-peoples-choice-party-2011-campaign.htm

References: Fonterra.(n.d). The storey of milk. Retrieved October 23, 2011, from http://www.fonterra.com/wps/wcm/connect/fonterracom/fonterra.com/Our+Products/The+Story+Of+Milk/ Forest and Bird. (2011). Agriculture. Retrieved October 23, 2011, from http://www.forestandbird.org.nz/saving-our-environment/threats-and-impacts-/threats-impacts-agriculture Greenpeace. (2010a). Intensive Farming. Retrieved October 20, 2011, from http://www.greenpeace.org/new-zealand/en/campaigns/climate-change/smart-farming/the-bad/ Greenpeace. (2010b). Smart Farming. Retrieved October 20, 2011, from http://www.greenpeace.org/new-zealand/en/campaigns/climate-change/smart-farming/ Greenpeace. (2010c). Fonterra implicated in rainforest destruction. Retrieved October 20, 2011, from http://www.greenpeace.org/new-zealand/en/news/fonterra-exposed/ Scoop. (2011), The Peoples Choice Party 2011 Campaign, Retrieved October 20, 2011, from http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1105/S00037/the-peoples-choice-party-2011-campaign.htm