Dr Mike Joy, NZ’s most high profile & prolific ecological voice for the waterways and ecology. How his valued insights has him consulting for LandCorp the NZ Government’s holdings that involve 127 properties, close to 1 million acres of land, and 1.6 million animals that need to be environmentally stewarded.
Mike says that the big challenge for NZ farms, especially dairy is through the increasing application of both nitrogen and phosphorus. That in assisting in quadrupling farm production in the last 25 years - that has benefitted the rural sector and the country as a whole, the downside is immense. As these leach out of the soil and into waterways where they feed nuisance plant and algae growth throughout our river and lakes. Also, that we are facing a critical problem with cadmium that is found in the phosphates that are mined overseas and imported into NZ.