farming

Categories under farming

  • No categories

The drought

Written By: - Date published: 7:43 am, February 13th, 2015 - 37 comments

Drought has been declared for a huge region of the South Island. Weather extremes are going to be the new normal – why aren’t we adapting?

The image of farming

Written By: - Date published: 10:10 am, January 25th, 2015 - 98 comments

Farmers are copping stick for doing what the rest of us are doing. We all need to change, not just them.

Ministry lies about animal abuse.

Written By: - Date published: 9:06 am, December 5th, 2014 - 97 comments

Earlier this year Farmwatch investigated pig farming in New Zealand. We filmed horrific conditions and animal cruelty on several farms in Auckland and Christchurch. On one farm workers kicked and stomped on piglets. They beat a sow to death with a sledgehammer. It took more than an hour to kill her. Sunday, TVNZ’s weekend current […]

John Key and the Fart Tax

Written By: - Date published: 3:16 pm, November 17th, 2014 - 35 comments

Momentum is building for action on climate change – but Key reckons it’s all just too hard for little old NZ. If only the Nats hadn’t killed of funding for research into the reduction of agricultural emissions…

Positive Labour policy for meat industry

Written By: - Date published: 10:57 pm, July 27th, 2014 - 4 comments

In the late 1980’s I worked on the establishment of the Meat Industry Tradesmens Agreement, bringing eight  awards into one. My lasting memory is how the meat companies hated each other more than they hated the unions, and they were no union-lovers. 25 years later, the companies still can’t get their act together, and it is the country as well as the farmers who are hurting. It may surprise some, but it’s the Labour party who is putting forward policy to bring in the necessary change to the $8billion industry. Good work from Damien O’Connor and the Labour leadership.

NRT: Election 2014: A clear choice on clean rivers

Written By: - Date published: 11:37 am, July 15th, 2014 - 6 comments

The National government’s policy for economic growth has been simple: pump up dairy production, export more low-value milk powder, and keep low-value farmers as the “backbone of the economy”. To achieve this, they have dismantled the protections for and then defiled our fresh water on an industrial scale. The Greens want to reverse that and thereby ensure a long-term future for both our farming and peoples. Updated.

Phil Goff: Contemporary China Research Centre

Written By: - Date published: 6:25 pm, July 2nd, 2014 - 9 comments

It isn’t that often that we put up speeches by politicians. They’re usually aimed at the general public and don’t really get into the guts of the issues in the way that our activist commenters like to argue at – they tend to be political and in this site preaching to the converted.  However this speech by Phil Goff is exceptional. It was made at a centre looking at China, and looks at the benefits and risks of our current and future relationships with that country. Worth reading

NRT: So much for Ruataniwha

Written By: - Date published: 9:08 pm, June 26th, 2014 - 18 comments

Yesterday, the Hawkes Bay Regional Coucil voted to invest $80 million in the Ruataniwha dam. Today, the board of inquiry upheld its resource consent decisions, effectively shitcanning the project. And that, hopefully, is that. Or will HBRC and the farmers demand National pass a law under urgency to allow them to pillage this river, just as they’re doing for the West Coast forests?

The extinction of Kauri

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, March 29th, 2014 - 36 comments

National has refused to continue funding research into Kauri Dieback disease.  But the discovery of the disease in the Coromandel has sparked a new sense of urgency.  And Nick Smith is busily trying to rewrite history.

Amy Adams has more explaining to do

Written By: - Date published: 3:01 pm, March 18th, 2014 - 12 comments

Further questions have arisen about Amy Adams’ involvement with decisions relating to Canterbury water and in particular the decision to extend the term of the existing commissioners.

Muddying the Waters

Written By: - Date published: 10:43 am, February 13th, 2014 - 62 comments

Dave Hansford contrasts the way that France handles its usage of waterways by farmers with the unsustainable degradation of NZ farmers. For that matter with the way that farming in the France is targeted at high value rather than commodity factory farming.  Let’s have the really tough conversation: is a low-value, mass-market business model really the best we can do? Are cheap, anonymous, industrial commodities our finest work? And are they worth the hidden cost to farmers, taxpayers and the environment?

It wasn’t a dirty pipe

Written By: - Date published: 8:27 am, August 15th, 2013 - 205 comments

It wasn’t a dirty pipe. That is the claim made by veterinarian and farm performance consultant Frank Rowson, as reported by Stuff yesterday. Rowson says “This disease originates in contaminated feed and animal manure”. Let the enquiries begin – we need to be honest about the problem and fix it.

Key needs to get real on Fonterra crisis

Written By: - Date published: 12:11 pm, August 11th, 2013 - 128 comments

The Fonterra fiasco is turning into a genuine crisis and a huge risk to our economy. John Key needs to stop playing politics and get real. It’s urgent.

Fonterra scandal and deregulation

Written By: - Date published: 8:15 am, August 9th, 2013 - 72 comments

Stuff’s Pattrick Smellie makes the case that the Fonterra scandal is a product of deregulation. The lesson here is that Mike Joy and other scientists are right. To protect its environment, its brand, its exports and its economy, NZ needs to strengthen regulatory protections and clean up its act.

The cost of a US Harvard education: global land exploitation

Written By: - Date published: 8:15 am, May 7th, 2013 - 51 comments

US universities’ budgets partly rely on endowment funds.  Harvard University investment activities in poor countries exploit people and lax regulations, damaging communities, the environment & economies. They are one of the biggest foreign owners of NZ land.

Hockey stick becomes a wheelchair

Written By: - Date published: 2:15 pm, April 30th, 2013 - 23 comments

When you look at the dependence of farmers in extreme climates around the world who are reliant on regular weather like the monsoons in Bangladesh or the mild winters in the gulf stream washed areas like Europe, it is clear how reliant we are for food on our relatively unchanging climate of the past 11,000 years.

English in denial on climate change

Written By: - Date published: 9:12 am, March 18th, 2013 - 172 comments

Corin Dann interviewed Bill English very well on climate change and the drought yesterday on Q+A. It was clear that English has his head in the dust. Despite claiming that the government is leading on climate change, English would barely let the ‘cc’ words pass his lips and referred ‘dry cycles’, as if climate change is just temporary, so not really worth worrying about.

Two Things

Written By: - Date published: 5:05 pm, March 13th, 2013 - 124 comments

David Shearer won’t rule-out asset buy back (at cost), and a great blog post on “Climate Change: The New Normal”

The big dry

Written By: - Date published: 10:17 am, March 13th, 2013 - 77 comments

We’re now experiencing the worst drought in the North Island in recorded history. It comes just five years after the previous severe drought and there was a lesser one in between. Let’s not beat around the bush, it’s climate change. Bill English came very close on Monday to admitting that climate change induced-droughts will make bailouts unsustainable.

We’re all beneficiaries now

Written By: - Date published: 7:38 pm, March 6th, 2013 - 168 comments

The drought shows how important social protection systems are. When the unexpected happens – your farm dries up, you get sick, you lose your job, you find yourself alone raising your kids – the community steps in by way of tax funded Social Protection.

Green Party “I’m in – for the future”

Written By: - Date published: 8:21 am, January 27th, 2013 - 109 comments

For once lately, I agree with Matt McCarten on the Green Party being Centre Stage this week: a housing policy for renters and buyers on low incomes, including state housing.  Memorable speech at Ratana by Turei.  Today: Picnic for the Planet, State of the Planet speech & the launch of a new “I’m in – for the future” initiative.

Selling NZ – in the news

Written By: - Date published: 8:05 am, December 29th, 2012 - 93 comments

There’s been a couple of stories in the news over the last 24 hours that could do with some scrutiny: Treasury warns of asset sales over-load; potential sale of Oceania Dairy to an overseas company to set up a milk factory in NZ.

A National attack on the environment

Written By: - Date published: 11:34 am, November 29th, 2012 - 14 comments

Anthony has already mentioned the amazing record of us winning both first and second prize in the first Fossil of the Day awards at the Doha climate talks – quite a remarkable achievement, particularly for a nation that trades on its “100% Pure” environmental credentials. Over at Pundit Claire Browning has an extensive list of […]

EPA seems fishy

Written By: - Date published: 5:28 pm, September 27th, 2012 - 7 comments

MrSmith has been following National’s new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) hearing considering an application by New Zealand King Salmon for a plan change and resource consents so it can create nine new fish farms in areas of the Marlborough Sounds where aquaculture is prohibited. It seems fishy and at odds with the stated intent of the EPA.

GM lobby can butt out

Written By: - Date published: 10:22 am, September 5th, 2012 - 53 comments

There are perfectly good reasons that NZ as a country should remain GM free. And we should stand up and say so in the face of inept and blatant lobbying from the GM industry.

ImperatorFish: Environmentalists Are Not The Problem, Mr Groser

Written By: - Date published: 12:59 pm, July 3rd, 2012 - 9 comments

Tim Groser in the NBR: “Our enemies who are internal, will find one cow in one stream and feed it back to environmental activists in the developed world to be used to try to exclude New Zealand’s products and services in the ludicrous belief this will somehow help New Zealand.” Paranoid, much? And don’t you think the polluters are the problem, not the people who fail to hush it up?

National has no intention of ever enforcing ETS

Written By: - Date published: 8:08 am, July 3rd, 2012 - 59 comments

As many of us expected, National has no intention of ever enforcing the ETS in the area where it makes the most difference to NZ emissions – agriculture.

Pengxin’s outrageous profiteering attempt

Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, June 29th, 2012 - 21 comments

Shanghai Pengxin’s bid to buy the Crafar Farms was accepted the 2nd time on promises it would invest in building the farms’ productivity in a way a New Zealand buyer couldn’t. Instead, they immediately turned around and tried to sell 3 of the farms at an outrageous profit. Pengxin has shown it has no intent of being bound to the commitments it has made.

Pike Road?

Written By: - Date published: 10:27 pm, June 21st, 2012 - 10 comments

A strong safety warning today about sheeptruck disaster met Ministerial indifference from Associate Transport Minister Simon Bridges. He said Australian legislation to promote safety and fairness in the road transport industry was not needed here because “New Zealand already has a system of work time requirements to help manage the risk of fatigue”. More infamous last words from a National politician – but the police are really worried.

Why are the fish dying, King Salmon?

Written By: - Date published: 2:09 pm, June 14th, 2012 - 21 comments

No-one seems to know why the fish keep dying at King Salmon’s Waihinau farm in Pelorus Sound – or if they do they aren’t telling us. Maybe it had something to do with stuffing tens of thousands of these fish into an environment that is nothing like they have evolved to deal with. It is interesting that this has not been offered up as a potential cause.

Govt case for Crafar sale seriously flawed

Written By: - Date published: 6:32 am, April 23rd, 2012 - 203 comments

Fran ‘sell it all’ O’Sullivan says the government’s case for selling Crafar farms “appears robust”. Well, she would say that. But, if you read it, you’ll see they’ve just done a half-arsed, perfunctory attempt to appear to abide by the law as defined by the Court while coming to the same decision on the same offer. It’ll be shot to pieces in Court.