Fonterra discharging nitrogen-heavy water onto 'ghost farms'

Fonterra cleared the cows from 16 farms and is using the land to dispose of wastewater which could be leaching a colourless, tasteless and odourless pollutant into private drinking water supplies.

 

It was on his runs that Neville Ross first noticed cows were slowly disappearing from local farms. In 2017 most of the stock vanished from two farms. A year later they disappeared from a third Cambridge farm.

 

"Some places you realise there's no animals - at all - for like a year."

 

Neville's not a farmer, he's a cop and has been part of Waikato's police for 42 years. Despite being a detective sergeant, when the working dairy farms became ghost farms, it didn't weigh on his mind. All three were owned by Fonterra. If it was a case of cattle-rustling or alien abduction, the multi-national dairy giant would have sounded the alarm.

 

He didn't know stock was vanishing from other Fonterra farms around New Zealand, or that one day he and his wife Denise may have lingering doubts over his health and whether it was connected to what goes on at the empty properties.

 

You wouldn't know it to look at him, but Neville's on sick leave at the moment.

 

Neville's always been fit, Denise says. He's competed in triathlons, half Ironmans and he used to bike the 26km between the Cambridge lifestyle block they bought nine years ago and his Hamilton job. He's never smoked and isn't a drinker. His healthy lifestyle and current condition seem at odds. "He's always been incredibly healthy...we're always wondering why."

 

With a grin, Neville says he's not sick, but that his brain doesn't turn on sometimes.

Occasionally, while discussing the empty farm down the road, words slither away from him and Denise fills in the gaps.

 

The farm is Buxton Farm and aside from a lack of stock and a smart-looking Fonterra "Dairy is life" sign at the gate which, among other things, warns of wandering stock, it looks like any other farm in the area.