e-infrastructure Roadmap for Open Science in Agriculture

The New Zealand dairy industry faces political and commercial pressure to improve its environmental performance while maintaining commercial competitiveness in a global marketplace. In response to such pressures, the industry has taken some steps to improve the environmental management practices of dairy farmers. Despite significant effort, however, the dairy sector remains highly influenced by global competition, and continues to subordinate environmental sustainability to economic productivity. Furthermore, government institutions have had limited control over farm management practices, or the extent to which public policies militate against the relentless rise in land use intensification. As a consequence of its environmental impacts, dairy farming has received widespread public criticism over the past decade. The dairy industry has responded by bringing environmental concerns within the ambit of dairy farm management. The aim of this paper is to assess the concept of ecological modernisation, as an environmental policy model, with reference to New Zealand's dairy industry. The focus of the paper will be on the management of dairy effluent and water quality, because environmental initiatives by the industry and policy actions by regional and central government have focused most strongly on these elements. Ecological modernisation as a term has been variously applied to several separate phenomena. They include a growing body of theoretical literature in environmental sociology, political and industrial programmes concerned with improving the environmental performance of industry through rational environmental management, 'reconciling economic development and environment'. Examples of representative practices include 'strategic environmental management', 'cleaner production', 'industrial life cycle analysis', and 'environmental quality assessment' systems such as ISO 14001. Some proponents of ecological modernisation view it as synonymous with sustainable development. According to ecological modernisation theorists, it as a social practice offers the means by which industrial society can hope to make a transition toward ecologically sustainable production. They espouse greener technologies, 'polluter pays', and 'ecological rationality'. Socio-political practices and policies that promote such change should be encouraged, including knowledge-based institutions, innovation and the application of sophisticated new technologies. However, despite the promise of new environmental management policies and practices by the regional councils and dairy industry, the continuing decline of water quality in many parts of New Zealand suggests that ecological modernisation is unlikely to prevent the gradual, unremitting, environmental deterioration, so long as the main drivers behind agricultural intensification continue. New Zealand is also experiencing a fundamental and seemingly irreconcilable conflict between the economic dynamic of capitalist production for food, and protection of the nation's natural environment and habitats. As critics of official environmental policies have often argued, the current mismatch between green objectives and the planning approach has allowed politicians to claim the possibility of win-win solutions. Policy simulation modelling may thus become politically sensitive if it makes this mismatch between green agendas and the rational planning approach apparent. Set against this stark background, current trends suggest that the ecological modernisation of New Zealand's dairy industry is not likely to compensate for the environmental consequences created by the expansion of the dairy industry.