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TLDR: Support our campaign to reduce New Zealand's dairy herd 25% by 2025* as part of a global effort to reduce the devastating impacts of dairy worldwide. MILKED will deliver this petition to world leaders at COP27. Together we can change this.

We are Chris Huriwai and Amy Taylor. We made MILKED to show the true cost of the dairy industry in our home of New Zealand. What we discovered was a horror story – and it’s spreading around the world as we speak.

The image of New Zealand is one of beautiful mountains and pristine rivers. Our country has given us so much inspiration for how to enjoy and respect the earth. Growing up, dairy farming was a part of that image, a normal part of life.

But that image isn’t real. What we uncovered in MILKED is terrifying: people and cows dying for profit; rivers polluted, nature being destroyed. We also revealed that New Zealand’s largest dairy producer, Fonterra, has been massively underreporting its greenhouse gas output, creating more emissions than the whole of Sweden.

The New Zealand government needs to take urgent action.

Our country is the biggest dairy exporter in the world – but it comes at a cost that’s too high to pay. 

That’s why we’re asking Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Agriculture Minister Hon. Damien O’Connor, to reduce the New Zealand dairy herd 25% by 2025 as part of a coordinated effort to reduce the devastating impacts of dairy worldwide. 

Why is this important?

Each year the global dairy herd of over 260 million cows produces around 26 million tonnes of methane (100kg per cow, per year). Methane is over 84 times more potent in warming the atmosphere than carbon dioxide over a 20-year time horizon.

Reducing methane emissions would have an immediate impact on Earth’s climate. More than 100 nations – including New Zealand – signed the Global Methane Pledge at COP26. But we need to reduce methane much sooner than 2030.

This action will protect wildlife and natural habitats, reduce emissions, and save lives.

New Zealand must take action

The dairy industry produces almost a quarter of New Zealand’s total greenhouse gas emissions – and that’s a conservative estimate. In NZ:

• Each cow has a waste footprint of 14 humans.
• The dairy industry is the biggest water polluter.
• It takes 1,000 litres of water to produce only 1 litre of milk.

New Zealand has become such an intensive industrial dairy producer, it’s cows produce nearly 3 times as much milk as cows in countries like India. 

Globally:

• More than three quarters of our planet’s agricultural land is used to feed livestock, but only produces 18% of the world’s calories.
• The number one risk factor for new zoonotic diseases like Covid 19 is the increased demand for animal protein.
• Humans are the only mammals to continue drinking milk throughout our lifetimes.
• About 65% to 70% of adults are lactose intolerant.

Take action now and we can reduce dairy’s impacts on people and planet.

Around the world dairy farmers are transitioning to plant-based milk production, led by pioneers such as Elmhurst and supported by organizations like TransFARMation. But the NZ government must do more to aid farmers in this essential transition.

Demand for plant milks is on the rise. Oat milk uses 13 times less water, 11 times less land, and creates 3.5 times less greenhouse gas emissions than cow’s milk. 

MILKED has exposed the truth. But we can’t fix this on our own. We need action, and that’s where you come in. 

We witnessed horrific abuse, pollution, and illness caused by the dairy industry.

Support our campaign to reduce the New Zealand dairy herd 25% by 2025* as part of a global effort to reduce the devastating impacts of dairy worldwide. MILKED will deliver this petition to world leaders at COP27. Together we can change this.

*Reductions through slowed breeding, not slaughter. The cows have given enough!