“Because it is about supporting the people who are not shifting fast enough.”
Farmers were suffering from pressures that made it “difficult” for them to move in the right direction, she said, citing fertiliser companies that could be exerting pressure to apply more nutrients on land than was needed.
“We need our agricultural leadership to work to relieve some of that pressure.”
Prickett urged farmers to consider their practices outside the advisers they currently trust.
Some agricultural companies had “deeply embedded” goals of maximising production, rather than thinking at an individual farm level.
STACY SQUIRES/Stuff
Dr Tim Chambers, senior research fellow at the department of public health at the University of Otago, talks about the health effects of nitrates in water.