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Rio: any hope?

Written By: - Date published: 3:04 pm, June 20th, 2012 - 41 comments

A draft agreement has been negotiated for the Rio+20 summit that starts today, but anyone who cares about the future of our planet should be disappointed. The expert panel of nobel laureates, scientists and ministers’ call to ‘seize the moment’ has largely gone unheeded, as the agreement is full of empty promises and lacking in concrete commitments.

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.

Milking a Land of Plenty?

Written By: - Date published: 10:39 am, April 4th, 2012 - 86 comments

NZ milk production has apparently risen by 30% since 2005. And, according to sources used by frenz.co.nz, back in 2006  over 14 billion liters of milk and 1.2 billion kilograms of milk solids (were) being processed by dairy companies annually That’s a lot of milk and associated dairy to spread around some four and a […]

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.

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 […]

Nelson floods

Written By: - Date published: 11:23 am, December 19th, 2011 - 41 comments

It’s Nelson / Tasman’s turn to get hammered by nature. Commiserations to all those affected. As a country (and a world) we should brace for more extreme weather ahead.

Labour moves on slave fishing

Written By: - Date published: 9:42 am, November 14th, 2011 - 15 comments

Labour’s fisheries policy will phase-in a requirement for fishing vessels to be at least 50% Kiwi-crewed and at least 50% of processing would have to occur here. Good start. It’s our fish – it should be harvested sustainably to create Kiwi jobs with fair pay and adequate conditions. The shame of slave fishing has to be ended.

Slave fishing – NZ’s shame

Written By: - Date published: 6:48 am, October 25th, 2011 - 13 comments

You won’t find much praise for Talley’s on this site. But, fair dues, they harvest their fish with Kiwi crews and have this to say on slave fishing: “If it is uneconomic to harvest a New Zealand resource under New Zealand labour conditions and costs then it is not a resource. Blood diamonds and Asian textile sweatshops use the same justification”

Scumbags of the South Seas

Written By: - Date published: 12:20 pm, October 18th, 2011 - 26 comments

“We need more cheap foreign fishermen” says the slave fishing lobby group. They say that it’s just like Fisher & Paykel moving their production offshore for cheaper labour. Well, tell you want, slave-fishers, how about you fuck off to China and we’ll stay here and fish our fish ourselves without breaking labour and environment laws? NoRightTurn takes up the story.

NoRightTurn: Nats veto last ocean

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, October 12th, 2011 - 12 comments

Remember when New Zealand used to lead the world on the environment? Yeah, well not under the Key Government. Now, New Zealand is preparing to veto making the Ross Sea a marine protected area. Why are we alone in blocking this last pristine sea from protection? For the sake of a $18m fishery, probably fished by slave ships.

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.

Revolution and hunger

Written By: - Date published: 9:51 am, August 28th, 2011 - 44 comments

What provokes a populace to take to the streets in violent uprising?  Is it the inexorable power of a demand for justice and democracy?  Or is it something much simpler than that…

Chart o’ the day: got milked?

Written By: - Date published: 9:23 am, August 10th, 2011 - 40 comments

Can’t help but notice the international price peaked just when Fonterra put on their ‘generous price-cap’tm.

End slavery in NZ, create 2,500 Kiwi jobs

Written By: - Date published: 2:53 pm, August 7th, 2011 - 25 comments

Next week, a report will reveal the abuse of 2,500 foreign workers used as virtual slaves on ships employed by kiwi fishing quota holders in our waters. By rights, we should have a world renowned fishing fleet. Instead, we let our potential go to waste and employ foreign slaveowners and human traffickers to do the work instead.

No to foreign boats harvesting our fish

Written By: - Date published: 1:11 pm, August 5th, 2011 - 49 comments

Fisheries workers bearing a 12,000 signature told a select committee yesterday the horror stories of abuse of foreign workers on fishing vessels, whose low wages displace Kiwi workers, how the focus on low-cost, low-quality that is wasting our fish stocks, and how this is caused by Kiwi corporates putting a quick buck ahead of their people and their environment.

Elitist Nats divorced from everyday Kiwis

Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, April 15th, 2011 - 49 comments

National pollster David Farrar reckons that its sweet for the elite to spend $100 a head on meals at the taxpayer’s expense. Same time as he’s sneering at a woman struggling to get by feeding four people on $200 a week. This is National’s New Zealand. The best for the elite. Cat food for the rest.

They just waste it on booze & smokes

Written By: - Date published: 7:40 am, April 6th, 2011 - 246 comments

John Key says the thousands of Kiwi families turning to foodbanks to get by are made ‘poor choices’. Among the ‘poor choices’ that poor people allegedly make according to righties is spending all their money on alcohol and cigarettes, rather than on food. As with most ‘truths’ that underpin rightwing prejudice, the facts don’t back this up.

Farrar fluffs food figures

Written By: - Date published: 11:28 am, March 7th, 2011 - 51 comments

I thought that with a devastating earthquake, a record oil/food price spike, an unemployment tsunami, and a double-dip recession that the Nats’ apologists might have realised it was time for honest discussion of the issues and solutions. Instead, they’re still trying to bury our heads in the sand.

Seismic events in Christchurch, food & fuel

Written By: - Date published: 10:37 am, February 28th, 2011 - 20 comments

Concurrently Christchurch’s second big quake, the effects of two other shocks are beginning to ripple through our country. Food prices are putting basics out of reach and this week will see another big petrol price hike. All three of these shocks will require us to pool our resources and redirect them to rebuilding resiliently.

Key out of touch on food & poverty

Written By: - Date published: 10:52 am, February 20th, 2011 - 67 comments

Hunger and malnutrition are stalking New Zealand families. Hundreds of thousands are just one shock – whether an illness, or a large bill – from not being able to afford basic food. This is not good enough in our land of plenty. Multi-millionaire John Key doesn’t empathise. To him poverty is a moral failing but he’s seriously out of touch.

Milked

Written By: - Date published: 7:51 am, February 17th, 2011 - 51 comments

Our wages are so low that we can’t keep paying “international prices” for basic necessities.  GST off food is just tinkering at the edges.  We need more radical action.

Welcome to the new normal

Written By: - Date published: 11:43 pm, February 14th, 2011 - 53 comments

Look at the international media these days and what do we see? Oil prices rising due to peak oil. Extreme weather events due to climate change. Rising food prices due to peak oil increasing production costs, climate change destroying crops and resource depletion. And, in the most exposed countries, governments falling in revolution.

Food/oil crisis sparking revolutions

Written By: - Date published: 9:47 am, January 29th, 2011 - 17 comments

Food and oil prices have sparked unrest across North Africa. The Tunisian Government has fallen. Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak has declared martial law. In Cairo, thousands of protesters shook hands with the soldiers, and chanted: “The army and the people are united” and “The revolution has come.”* Yup. Mubarak’s screwed.

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.

2011: year of the next mega-shock

Written By: - Date published: 8:40 am, December 20th, 2010 - 47 comments

Liam Dann had a very good piece in the Herald the other day about rising commodity prices. Despite insipid growth, prices of food and oil, the fuels of our civilisation are through the roof. The underlying meaning of those high prices is we’re having to devote more of our resources to feeding and fueling ourselves, leaving less for anything else.

Guest post: Beware Food Police!

Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, December 10th, 2010 - 51 comments

To arms! To arms! The Food Police are coming! Remember how I led you in the battle to get junk food back into schools? It was a near-run thing. If we hadn’t acted, the days of the 12 year-old who can’t climb a flight of stairs without wheezing and going red in the face might have been numbered. Now, National has hypocritically betrayed us.

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 […]

No Right Turn on GST policy changes.

Written By: - Date published: 4:18 pm, September 27th, 2010 - 113 comments

No Right Turn has covered todays announcement about policy changes for GST on fruit and vegetables. Since it is pretty comprehensive we will reproduce the two posts here.

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.

The new food crisis

Written By: - Date published: 9:57 am, August 13th, 2010 - 21 comments

Climate change, peak oil, resource exhaustion, and over-population are combing to cause a new food crisis. Grains supply half the calories we consume directly and feed much of our live-stock. The prices of those are skyrocketing because supply can’t match demand. Starting with Russia, major exporters are limiting the amount they send abroad to keep what they have for their own people.

Bananas!

Written By: - Date published: 2:08 pm, July 31st, 2010 - 51 comments

Kiwis are amongst the highest consumers of bananas per capita in the world but for decades the banana industry has had a record of significant exploitation of workers including slave labour practices, execution of trade union members and a homicidal disregard of basic heath and safety practices. There’s a reason for the term “banana republic”. […]