“All of the indicators we have is that things are bad and getting worse. I started to realise that dairy, or intensive farming, was the big problem,” says freshwater ecologist Dr Mike Joy.

Milk and Money: The True Cost of Dairy in Aotearoa is a six-part series exploring the dairy industry’s impact on the community, economy and environment of Aotearoa, and considering what a sustainable future for the industry could look like.

In Episode 2: Water, we explore the state of freshwater in New Zealand and the role dairy has played in its decline. 

It’s not only in the health of our ecosystems, but also in our cultural and physical health. Yet efforts to address these problems have been caught in a battleground between business, politics and science.

Re: Journalist Baz Macdonald speaks to dairy farmer Stu Muir, Forest and Bird freshwater advocate Tom Kay, epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker, environmental engineer Jayne Richards, freshwater ecologist Dr Mike Joy, and Māori environmental planner Dr Mahina-a-rangi Baker (Te Āti Awa, Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Toa).

Watch the whole series here.

Made with the support of NZ on Air.