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Polluted Inheritance: New Zealand's Freshwater Crisis
The parlous state of our freshwater ecosystems is just one signal that we face a more widespread, and unprecedented, environmental crisis.
New Zealand’s dairy industry is big business. But what are the hidden – and not so hidden – costs of intensive farming? Evidence presented here by ecologist Mike Joy demonstrates that intensive dairy farming has degraded our freshwater rivers, streams and lakes to an alarming degree. This situation, he argues, has arisen primarily through governmental policy that prioritises short-term economic growth over long-term environmental sustainability. This BWB Text is a call to arms, urging New Zealand to change course or risk the wellbeing of future generations.
New Zealand’s dairy industry is big business. But what are the hidden – and not so hidden – costs of intensive farming? Evidence presented here by ecologist Mike Joy demonstrates that intensive dairy farming has degraded our freshwater rivers, streams and lakes to an alarming degree. This situation, he argues, has arisen primarily through governmental policy that prioritises short-term economic growth over long-term environmental sustainability. This BWB Text is a call to arms, urging New Zealand to change course or risk the wellbeing of future generations.
- GenresNonfiction
68 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 18, 2015
4 people are currently reading
22 people want to read
About the author
Mike Joy
5 books5 followersMike Joy is a New Zealand freshwater ecologist and science communicator. He is currently employed at Victoria University of Wellington.
Dr Joy is publicly outspoken about the decline in freshwater quality and ecosystems, especially the impact of nutrient pollution from intensive dairying on New Zealand's "100% Pure", clean, green image. This has led to awards from scientific organisations, as well as criticism from the dairy industry and former Prime Minister John Key.
Joy left school at 17. He worked various jobs including dairying, labouring, truck and taxi driving, building and sheep farming as well as for the NZ Secret Service, before enrolling at Massey University in 1993 at the age of 33.
His Master's thesis, entitled Freshwater Fish Community Structure in Taranaki: dams, diadromy or habitat quality? was completed in 1999 and received first class honours. This led to his PhD thesis, The development of predictive models to enhance biological assessment of riverine systems in New Zealand, submitted in 2003 and supervised by freshwater ecologist Russell Death, Robert McDowall and Brian Springett.
He was a Senior Lecturer in Ecology and Environmental Science at Massey University in Palmerston North until May 2018. From 2018 to May 2023, when the university disestablished his position, he was employed at the Institute for Governance and Policy Studies at Victoria University of Wellington. In June 2023 it was announced he would take up a five year fellowship as the Morgan Foundation Senior Research Fellow in Freshwater Ecology at Victoria, funded by the Morgan Foundation.[
He regularly gives talks around the country to environmental, farming, community and school groups.
Abridged from Wikipedia, with extra info from The Post
Dr Joy is publicly outspoken about the decline in freshwater quality and ecosystems, especially the impact of nutrient pollution from intensive dairying on New Zealand's "100% Pure", clean, green image. This has led to awards from scientific organisations, as well as criticism from the dairy industry and former Prime Minister John Key.
Joy left school at 17. He worked various jobs including dairying, labouring, truck and taxi driving, building and sheep farming as well as for the NZ Secret Service, before enrolling at Massey University in 1993 at the age of 33.
His Master's thesis, entitled Freshwater Fish Community Structure in Taranaki: dams, diadromy or habitat quality? was completed in 1999 and received first class honours. This led to his PhD thesis, The development of predictive models to enhance biological assessment of riverine systems in New Zealand, submitted in 2003 and supervised by freshwater ecologist Russell Death, Robert McDowall and Brian Springett.
He was a Senior Lecturer in Ecology and Environmental Science at Massey University in Palmerston North until May 2018. From 2018 to May 2023, when the university disestablished his position, he was employed at the Institute for Governance and Policy Studies at Victoria University of Wellington. In June 2023 it was announced he would take up a five year fellowship as the Morgan Foundation Senior Research Fellow in Freshwater Ecology at Victoria, funded by the Morgan Foundation.[
He regularly gives talks around the country to environmental, farming, community and school groups.
Abridged from Wikipedia, with extra info from The Post
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 3, 2022
“New Zealand now has the highest proportion of threatened and at risk species in the world.”
To say that this makes for troubling reading would be a bit of an understatement. Bearing in mind this was published back in 2015 so many of these figures and statistics have gotten even worse. It is interesting to see how much time, money and effort is and has been put into maintaining the 100% Pure image of NZ, of course it doesn't take too long once you decide to delve beneath the PR, spin and other BS to see the reality is a long way from purity.
“Pollution is incentivised, because it makes economic sense for farmers to intensify, as long as the costs are passed onto the rest of society.”
Farming and in particular dairy intensification has undergone a four-fold increase in dairy production since 1992. The waste from one cow is equivalent to at least 14 humans. So the 2014 dairy cow total of more than 6.5 million equals a human population of 90 million. Also NZ is by far the biggest importer of Palm Kernel, which is used to feed all of these beasts.
Joy has done a fine job of tackling some thorny issues which a succession of NZ governments and corporations have done a fine job of keeping away from the eyes of the public for so long. An act of smoke and mirrors which continues today under Ardern.
He starts off this essay by mourning the loss of the country's precious wetlands, telling us that,
“Intact functioning wetlands are the kidneys of our waterways, and their values as soil and sediment filters, bio-accumulators, climate regulators and flood-energy dissipaters is almost immeasurable.”
Elsewhere we learn that New Zealanders suffer very high rates of waterborne disease. The MOH reveal between 18,000-34,000 are affected every year. Which means that Kiwis suffer the highest per capita frequency of coliform enteritis, campylobacteriosis, cryptosporidiosis and salmonellosis in the developed world.
There was a lot of valuable and troubling information packed into this little book, and well done to Joy for going against the grain and at least trying to inject some honesty and transparency on what is really going on with NZ's polluted waterways and showing who is really benefiting and who is ultimately paying the real price.
"The truth is, if we don't pay the true cost of everything, we just run up an unpayable bill for future generations."
November 25, 2018
Excellent analysis of NZ's freshwater crisis, presented in clear, accessible language and in a short form that makes it easy to read. Particularly relevant for politicians, policy makers, council water departments, farmers, scientists in ecology, zoology, environmental management, irrigators etc.
May 1, 2023
great book with such comprehensive insight into a shockingly unreported crisis with so many common sense solutions. such a quick and easy read that all new zealanders can and should read! truly a rallying call.
March 8, 2017
Great little book (more of an essay) packed with information about the current state of New Zealand's waterways. Mike Joy writes very concisely and delivers eye-opening information about the effects of intensive agriculture and possible strategies to mitigate these issues. Thoroughly recommend to any New Zealander or anyone who has ever wondered about sustainable (or not so sustainable) agriculture... this pertains to the rest of the world also.
December 23, 2019
Clear, concise and useful. Mike Joy is an excellent writer with a vision.
December 22, 2025
This was a thoroughly irritating read. The author appears more concerned with demonstrating his credentials and credibility than with actually explaining his position and recommendations.
I went into this book hoping to enjoy it and to become more informed. Unfortunately, his prose is too egotistical even for me. His typical paragraph structure begins by telling the reader how right he is (usually by means of a gratuitous adverb), followed by an explanation of what it is that he's right about (often backed by a misleading interpretation of something the author knows full well is inaccurate, e.g. the instance in which he cites a regulation in the Freshwater Fisheries Regulations 1983 to demonstrate a regulation too late to prevent an event in the 1930s, despite his knowledge that in fact the regulation originates in 1951; the exaggeration is unnecessary to make his point as 1951 is also some decades after the 1930s!). If lucky, his paragraph will end with either reasoning or evidence for his rightness, but never both. Sometimes it will also include an inappropriate analogy ⸻ high rise apartment buildings and the Mississippi River Delta Dead Zone are not, in fact, useful analogies for Ao/NZ audiences.
He also presents his book as a "call to arms". Not sure what about, since his conclusions seem thoroughly doomeristic: he presupposes the impossibility of fixing the problems he describes!
I went into this book hoping to enjoy it and to become more informed. Unfortunately, his prose is too egotistical even for me. His typical paragraph structure begins by telling the reader how right he is (usually by means of a gratuitous adverb), followed by an explanation of what it is that he's right about (often backed by a misleading interpretation of something the author knows full well is inaccurate, e.g. the instance in which he cites a regulation in the Freshwater Fisheries Regulations 1983 to demonstrate a regulation too late to prevent an event in the 1930s, despite his knowledge that in fact the regulation originates in 1951; the exaggeration is unnecessary to make his point as 1951 is also some decades after the 1930s!). If lucky, his paragraph will end with either reasoning or evidence for his rightness, but never both. Sometimes it will also include an inappropriate analogy ⸻ high rise apartment buildings and the Mississippi River Delta Dead Zone are not, in fact, useful analogies for Ao/NZ audiences.
He also presents his book as a "call to arms". Not sure what about, since his conclusions seem thoroughly doomeristic: he presupposes the impossibility of fixing the problems he describes!
August 20, 2023
A good short synopsis of some of the environmental issues New Zealand is facing.
December 29, 2020
Very enlightening! Ecology is so important
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews