Greenpeace/Stuff Greenpeace delivered a 33,000-strong petition in January to ask the Government to phase out synthetic nitrogen fertiliser. Farmers and horticulturalists are using more natural nitrogen fertilisers in the face of ongoing pressure to reduce or stop using synthetic equivalents. Greenpeace delivered a 33,000-strong petition in January asking the Government to phase out synthetic nitrogen fertiliser. Senior campaigner Steve Abel pointed the finger at industrial dairy farming for allegedly “poisoning” public and private water sources for profit. The environmental campaigners launched a new petition last week calling on the minister of health and the Government’s new water regulating body to lower the recognised safe limits for nitrates in drinking water.