End of war on farming, say farmers
Federated Farmers says changes announced to the Resource Management Act today mark the end of the war on farming.
Federated Farmers continues to be snubbed in regard to the Government’s freshwater reforms.
Late last week, Environment Minister David Parker and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor – along with ministry officials – unveiled the long-awaited reforms before invited media at Parliament.
Rural News understands that Federated Farmers has been on the outer and completely frozen out of the process since May last year, when it was accused of leaking confidential briefing material about the reforms – something that the farmer lobby has fiercely denied and Ministry for the Environment (MfE) officials have never proven.
MfE blamed Feds for the leak and refused to work with or share any further information on the water reforms with the farmer lobby.
This was despite the Feds strenuous denials of any leak in a letter to Parker’s office.
“The documents were not provided to our elected water spokesman and definitely not to any farmers,” the letter said.
Editor's note; This story has been updated to clarify that Federated Farmers were not the only organisation missing from the launch. All stakeholders winessed the launch online due to Covid-19 restrictions. There were no invited guests: only journalists were present at the launch in Wellington.
The country’s 4200 commercial fruit and vegetable growers will vote from May 14 on a new HortNZ levy.
Meat processor Alliance Group is asking farmer shareholders to inject more capital in order to remain a 100% co-operative.
A vet is calling for all animals to be vaccinated against a new strain of leptospirosis (lepto) discovered on New Zealand dairy farms in recent years.
Dairy
Rural banker Rabobank is partnering with Food Rescue Kitchen on a new TV series which airs this weekend that aims to shine a light on the real and growing issues of food waste, food poverty and social isolation in New Zealand.
Telco infrastructure provider Chorus says that it believes all Kiwis – particularly those in the rural areas – need access to high-speed, reliable broadband.