farming

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Sold out

Written By: - Date published: 11:58 am, April 20th, 2012 - 107 comments

As expected, the Nats kept on pushing until they got the answer that they wanted on the Crafar farms. A bit more of NZ has been sold out…

King salmon, stealing our future

Written By: - Date published: 11:01 am, March 19th, 2012 - 26 comments

Imagine taking your children down to the park to find an overseas had set up a dairy farm in one corner. The shit builds up and flows onto the playground. You complain, but are told the farm is under no obligation to treat or retain their waste and the council has no powers to do anything about it. That’s what’s happening with aquaculture thanks to the EPA.

Overseas investment must show real gains

Written By: - Date published: 7:25 am, March 12th, 2012 - 36 comments

David Shearer’s private member’s Bill on foreign investment is pure common sense: unless foreign ownership actually adds something substantial to the economy that cannot be supplied by local owners then all foreign investment brings is higher land prices, locking out Kiwis from ownership. Overseas buyers must bring something real to the table. A good first policy.

Key’s ‘sell, sell, sell’ mantra out of touch with NZ

Written By: - Date published: 7:47 am, February 16th, 2012 - 77 comments

The Crafar Farms decision is sensible and a correct interpretation of the law. Foreign buyers must add something that a local buyer can’t, other than a higher purchase price. Otherwise, our farmers will continue to be out-bid for our land by foreign government-backed companies that can afford a lower rate of return, and NZ will gain nothing. So, why is National rushing to change the law?

Treachery

Written By: - Date published: 10:09 am, January 28th, 2012 - 703 comments

Fran O’Sullivan is an enemy of the people. Her article in this morning’s Herald will forever brand her as a traitor to this country. She will be shunned and reviled by people who understand what a disgusting sell-out she has become. There is no coming back from this. The Crafar decision is a victory for […]

A sharp contrast

Written By: - Date published: 12:11 pm, November 11th, 2011 - 21 comments

When people say ‘there’s no difference between the two big parties’ or ‘where are the policies’, it’s shorthand for ‘I haven’t been paying attention’. We had a great example of the contrast yesterday. National would subsidise expansion of dairy by selling our assets; Labour would get modern equipment to poor schoolkids by cutting sports subsidies to rich schools.

Price of milk your fault

Written By: - Date published: 6:16 pm, September 15th, 2011 - 198 comments

It turns out that the high price of milk is your fault.  No – really.

March to Save Factory Farming

Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, September 9th, 2011 - 17 comments

On Saturday the 10th of September, 12pm, the Campaign to Save Factory Farming will be marching from the Civic Square to parliament. We will arrive at parliament at 1pm. With the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee about to release their new welfare code for layer hens it is important that we prevent the introduction of colony cages.

The Greens’ awesome water policy

Written By: - Date published: 10:42 am, August 22nd, 2011 - 75 comments

The Greens want to charge 10 cents per tonne of water used by farmers. Use the revenue to restore our rivers and lakes. Even Actoid types can support this: internalise externalities, use price mechanisms to encourage efficient use of resources. Naturally, the farmers don’t want to pay. Funny how ‘wealth creators’ never want to pay their fair share.

Myth busting – reducing agricultural emissions

Written By: - Date published: 9:31 am, August 8th, 2011 - 60 comments

We commonly hear the vested interests (Fed Farmers, National, Fonterra) saying that agriculture should continue to get a 100% subsidy on its greenhouse emissions because there’s no way for farmers to reduce their pollution aside from producing less. That’s rubbish. In fact, as BR shows, agriculture is already producing more value for less pollution.

Chart o’ the day: trouble brewing

Written By: - Date published: 10:35 am, July 22nd, 2011 - 13 comments

Another big fall in dairy prices overnight. Yet the dollar keeps breaking record highs.

Another right whinger

Written By: - Date published: 11:50 am, July 6th, 2011 - 18 comments

There’s an odd contradiction in right-wing ‘thought’. On the one hand, they’re Randian heroes, the wealth creators, modern day Atlases who support the world while ‘parasites’ try to take their wealth and bring them down. On the other hand, they’re victims who need subsidies and special treatment. Fed Farmers CEO Conor English embodies the contradiction.

Climate change: Farmers can afford the ETS

Written By: - Date published: 8:52 am, May 25th, 2011 - 45 comments

No Right Turn on the cost of the ETS to farmers.  Forecast to be paid over $8 per kilo for milk solids, what cost do you guess that the ETS subtracts from that sum?

Creaming it?

Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, May 18th, 2011 - 129 comments

The dairy industry produced 16 billion litres of milk in 08/09. The 17,000 dairy farmers got an average half million payout. So how come they only paid $26 million in tax in total? Are we meant to believe that the average dairy farm makes a million litres of milk for $5,000 profit? Rubbish. They’re creaming it.

100% Clueless

Written By: - Date published: 9:33 am, May 13th, 2011 - 86 comments

When confronted with the scientific evidence on the hollowness of our “100% Pure” slogan John Key, as usual, tried to attack the credibility of the source.  Key said “He’s one academic and, like lawyers, I could provide you others who would give a counter view”.   Now the source (Dr Mike Joy) has called the PM on his clueless claim.

Our dirty water

Written By: - Date published: 11:54 am, May 11th, 2011 - 26 comments

John Key didn’t much like being confronted with the facts on our dirty water.  He tried to pretend that everything is just fine, when it isn’t.  No surprise to find this attitude mimicked in National’s policy on water.  They are trying to pretend that they’re doing something when they aren’t.

Too much of a Good Thing

Written By: - Date published: 12:57 pm, January 24th, 2011 - 42 comments

Higher commodity and food prices, we are told are a Good Thing. Our exporters (ie. Fonterra and foreign oil companies) get more money. But we consumers have to pay more to by the same products, so are we better off? And what about the poor saps overseas who are paying more for less, or the really poor saps who are priced out of the market?

Ministers put public land in private hands

Written By: - Date published: 9:28 am, January 24th, 2011 - 28 comments

You’ll remember the disgraceful Schmuck scandal when Minister John Carter had clauses inserted into legislation specifically to legalise Doug Schmuck’s annexation of a public reserve. John Key took no action. Now, Kate Wilkinson and David Carter got in on the act – forcing DoC to sign over more public land for private use.

Food prices hit new record

Written By: - Date published: 7:10 am, January 7th, 2011 - 67 comments

With oil heading back to $100+ a barrel, food prices are also rising. That makes sense, fuel and fertiliser from oil are major food production costs. The global food price index is now higher than it was in 2008. In New Zealand, we’re supposed to celebrate high food prices but the reality is it means starvation and social unrest around the world.

Exploiting disaster

Written By: - Date published: 11:47 pm, December 16th, 2010 - 33 comments

It’s a tough Christmas for far too many Kiwis. Poverty is up, wages are down. 350,000 Kiwis are jobless or underemployed. The job losses are still coming. The rich got tax cuts, 70% got nothing. Drought is spreading. Thousands of Cantabrians face an uncertain future. Meanwhile, the Nats cynically exploit disaster to advance their agenda.

Climate change irony for farmers

Written By: - Date published: 11:36 pm, December 1st, 2010 - 121 comments

When they’re not polluting our rivers or fighting animal welfare laws, our farmers, the ‘guardians of the land’, are opposing having to pay for their greenhouse emissions. Now, with the Earth having just clocked up its warmest 12 months since records began, farmers are scratching their heads at the early start to the summer drought.

Framing the argument

Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, November 18th, 2010 - 16 comments

Bill English and brother Conner, CEO of Federated Farmers, share a vision for the world. It’s one where the environment and workers are exploited to the hilt in the name of ‘growth’ and the fruits of that ‘growth’ flow to a privileged elite (like the Englishes). Yesterday rich-boy Conner chided the rest of us with a speech titled “There is no free lunch”

Government cuts bite back

Written By: - Date published: 6:42 am, November 13th, 2010 - 26 comments

So our kiwifruit industry is in peril.  PSA may be here to stay, vines may start being burnt today, and a $1.36 billion industry is in trouble. Last year National sacked 54 front-line biosecurity staff, and slashed the budgets by millions. The PSA (Public Service Association) warned at the time that inevitably disease and pests […]

Key: good that foreign buyers increase land prices

Written By: - Date published: 2:00 pm, October 19th, 2010 - 37 comments

John Key says that if we don’t let overseas buyers snap up our farmland then land prices will decrease and some over-leveraged farmers will go underwater. And that’s supposedly a bad thing. Key wants us to believe that foreigners putting our farmland out of the reach of Kiwis and making us borrow more from the Aussie banks is a good thing.

Garth George & the limits to growth

Written By: - Date published: 2:12 pm, October 17th, 2010 - 64 comments

In his last column Garth George laments how foods he regularly enjoyed in his childhood (1870s?) are now priced beyond the reach of most New Zealanders. It’s easy to dismiss the complaints of an old man about prices these days but there’s a deeper story: with population growth and resource depletion, there increasingly isn’t enough to go around.

100% PURE…going…going…gone…

Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, October 12th, 2010 - 25 comments

When the 2009 ‘streamlining and simplifying’ amendment to the RMA was rushed through parliament last year, many concerns were raised about new abilities for the Minister for the Environment to use National Environmental Standards (NES) to override local government regulations. Now an NES on forestry is being pushed through. It’s scary stuff.

Fonterra – killing Orangutans.

Written By: - Date published: 3:48 pm, October 6th, 2010 - 45 comments

There has been an interesting ad from Greenpeace running around the site today. It is obviously intended to go viral before the lawyers from Fonterra get it into court… I think I might help out a bit… So should you – dump it onto the social media.

The Smiths: Getting it Right

Written By: - Date published: 9:56 am, September 24th, 2010 - 11 comments

Lockwood and Nick did good work yesterday.  So praise where praise is due: Keep it up boys.

Natural Dairy NZ & Chinese neo-mercantilism

Written By: - Date published: 10:23 am, September 13th, 2010 - 65 comments

To have power and independence, any country needs a solid economic base. That’s even more true of superpowers/empires. To secure their economic sovereignty they need the raw materials and markets of less powerful countries. They reinforce their economic sovereignty by taking others’. China does it by buying up whole supply chains.

You’re All Racists – Minister

Written By: - Date published: 8:11 am, September 3rd, 2010 - 34 comments

According to Maurice Williamson, we’re all racist. Our concern with foreign investment has nothing to do with the economy, we just hate the Chinese.

No SOE saviour for Key over Crafar farms

Written By: - Date published: 4:28 pm, July 13th, 2010 - 36 comments

Just spotted in the NZ Herald that receivers for the Crafar dairy farm empire have announced that state-owned farmer Landcorp has been unsuccessful in its attempt to buy the properties…