1. Oral submission on Fonterra’s application to expand Studholme milk drying capacity
Friday 8 April 2016
Dr Alex Macmillan
Public Health Physician
Senior Lecturer Environmental Health
Co-Convenor OraTaiao: NZ Climate & Health Council
Advocacy and expertise
My expertise
Ecosystem health
RMA and healthy public policy
Role of local government in public health
Climate change and health
Understanding complex systems
Not going to talk about numbers – reallly good specific analyses have already been done and available in the expert evidence – my input is putting it all together in an interacting model that shows how the negative impacts are interacting, compounding severity and uncertainty.

3. What to do when “the law is an ass”?
Mr Bumble, Oliver Twist

4. Climate change – a global health emergency
BMJ 2014;348:g2351 doi: /bmj.g2351 (Published 26 March 2014)

5. Photo: RNZ/Eric Frykberg

6. Rockstrom 2009 A safe operating space for humanity
Spend time on this
Rockstrom 2009 A safe operating space for humanity

7. Scoping the impacts
If the application sitting before us was for a factory that required between 8 and 15 million people to live locally and work in the factory, would that be considered “in scope”?

8. Regional relevant public health trends and targets
Water quality – declining (aiming for reversal)
Air quality – poor (aiming for improvement)
Ecosystem health – declining (aiming for improvement
Rural economic wellbeing – oscillating (aiming for stability)
Zoonotic illness – increasing (aiming for decrease)
Greenhouse gas emissions – increasing (aiming for decrease)
Farmer health and wellbeing – increasing economic stress (aiming for good health)

14. Application contribution to regional trends
Water quality – cause further decline
Air quality – cause further decline
GHG emissions – cause further increase
Zoonotic disease – cause further increase
Rural economic stability – cause further uncertainty
Farmer wellbeing – cause further decline

15. Problems with the current application
Failure to analyse the complex interactions impacting public health
Failure to incorporate the impacts of climate change in the assessment of environmental effects
Failure to incorporate the inextricable impacts of locking in further regional dairy intensification
Failure to incorporate global economic and carbon pricing realities
Failure to undertake a thorough analysis of renewable alternatives under Schedule 4
Failure to undertake a proper cost benefit assessment incorporating certainties (increasing carbon costs) and uncertainties (commodity prices, climate impacts)
Failure to protect shareholder (farmer)physical, mental and eocnomic wellbeing

16. Recommendations Reject the resource consent applications
Require Fonterra to submit more thorough economic and integrated impact analyses
Require Fonterra to submit a thorough assessment of renewable alternative energy supply and transport alternatives